KNUCKLE SANDWICH: Red Saunders

"When the new housing estates began to go up after the war... family after family moved out of the old Edwardian or Victorian rows into the new little boxes. It was all right..But when they looked around for the pub there wasn't one! And no fish and chip saloon! That was the catch in it. Jack Common; The Freedom of the Streets." Epigraph to the first chapter of Knuckle Sandwich.


The Knuckle Sandwich on this cover was photographed by Red Saunders, a.k.a MC Redman, He is a Photographer and an Activist. You can read a bio on his site red dog online

I love the Gritty 1970's image on this cover, it's so evocative, and the type (Gill Sans Ultra Bold) is Spectacular. The scratches and creases on the cover just add to it's power and charm.

The Book itself is the story of the rise and fall of Black Horse Disco, a youth club set up in the centre of a large working-class estate in North London, at a time when racism was rife in England and working-class dissatisfaction was at it's peak. It was the time of Punk and on the back cover there are a few lines from The Clash's 1977 song What's my name.
"What the hell is wrong with me? I'm not what I want to be...
I got nicked for fighting in the road; The judge didn't even know..... What's my name !"


Red Saunders today


Coincidentally some of Red's recent work is currently on display in the foyer of the Museum of London under the title HIDDEN, It depicts some of the 'Hidden' neglected scenes of working class history.

From the MOL press release: "Red Saunders combines his photographic practice with cultural, artistic, musical, and political activism. He made his name as a photographer with the innovative Sunday Times colour supplement, a relationship that ended with the Wapping dispute, and was a founder member of the Rock against Racism campaign."

A nice article coinciding with the Hidden show, with a bit more info on Red can be found here at the Camden New Journal.
And here some more in-depth background information on The subject matter of Hidden.

Pelican-A1977-ISBN_01402_1977_3
KNUCKLE SANDWICH - Growing Up in the Working-class City
David Robins and Philip Cohen
First Published: 1978
Cover Photo: Red Saunders
Type: Gill Sans Ultra Bold
Made and printed in Great Britain by
Richard Clay (The Chauser Press) Ltd.
Bungay, Suffolk
Set in Monotype Times

WOMAN IN AFRICA: Leni Riefenstahl

An image by a photographer with a fascinating back story.
Little did I know, that this image would lead me to a debate of morals and fascist aesthetics.


Man In Africa

The cover shows a photograph of a Nuba boy by Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl. In 1975 Riefenstahl spent 16 weeks with the Nuba of Kau. Her photographs from this time were published in her second Nuba Photo monograph, Die Nuba Von Kau. The Typeface is Kabel Black.

A2035-ISBN_01402_2035_6: MAN IN AFRICA: Colin M. Turnbull

Below is the original image, sourced from Leni's Website; which may give some insight into the aesthetic decisions made by the designer of the cover. The reddening of the eyes for example; the tight crop and possible darkening of the image. 

Photo: ©Leni Riefenstahl

About the Photographer
Leni Riefenstahl [1902 - 2003] was a German film director and photographer, but she was originally a dancer and an actress and during the 1920's and early 1930's starred in six of Arnold Fanck's Mountain films.
In 1932 she became a film director. Two of her films in particular; Triumph of the Will and Olympia are widely seen as propaganda films for the Third Reich, yet were critically acclaimed and are still regarded as aesthetically stunning and groundbreaking in terms of film making techniques.
Riefenstahl was arrested after WWII by the allies as a Nazi sympathiser, but released without charge after "Denazification".
Throughout the 1950's and '60's (Although she tried to distance herself from her Nazi affiliations) she found it all but impossible to make any more films due to her history.

She reinvented herself as a photographer in the 1960's, and, partially inspired by the Nuba photographs of George Rodger–travelled to Africa, where she spent time living with the Nuba peoples and documenting their way of life. Ultimately producing 2 bestseller Photo monographs of her work in the 1970's; The last of the Nuba and the People of Kau.


Susan Sontag had some very interesting things to say about Riefenstahl in her essay Fascinating Fascism in 1975.

Leni Riefenstahl died in 2003 aged 101. Here is the New York Times' Obituary, and the also the Obituary from the Times of London. Also see this review of this biography: Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl; by Steven Bach. All very Interesting reads indeed.

In summary, regarding the initial catalyst for this post.
It's amazing how an image can lead you on such a massive and unexpected journey. There's certainly been a lot of image-making history unearthed by this, and I'll definitely be continuing the research.

Oh and eventually i'll read the book too.

Pelican-A2035-ISBN_01402_2035_6

MAN IN AFRICA

Colin M. Turnbull

Cover Photo: Leni Riefenstahl

Published: 1978

Type: Kabel Black

Made and printed in Great Britain by

Cox & Wyman Ltd, 

London, Reading and Fakenham

Set in Linotype Juliana

A little bit about...

The Blog

It is my intention that this blog will not only be a collection of images but a starting point for research into the work of the vast array of art directors, designers, illustrators and photographers that have contributed to the world of Pelican. There are plenty of resources on the web displaying the fantastic covers and I have provided links to any that I have found, but often there's not much information on the creators of those covers.

One of the joys of collecting is the detective work involved and until I bought Phil Baines' excellent Book; Penguin by Designers I had very little information on the history of Pelican books and their designs. 

Still I'm not tying to provide a Pelican History here, and most of the info presented I have gleaned from the books themselves. Ultimately I am trying to see if I can piece together a design story from researching what is printed on the Jackets, using this as a springboard to find out about some of the great names involved. Some Jackets do not give any design credits, but many do, and this is one of the things that I find most exciting about Pelican (and Penguin) books. Just like LP's, they are ephemera with clues.

...And finally, as I research I am finding that not only is there very little information available online, but that sadly a lot of the great names are no longer with us. I think it is about time that we all got acquainted with the people who, often anonymously, have created some of the most striking visual communication of the 20th century.

The Collection

My collection so far is of books that I have purchased in Melbourne, Australia, and then mainly in Op-shops (second hand/charity shops), so currently it is quite limited in scope –you might not see the best covers here, but I hope you will see what makes them so interesting to me. And it's a collection, so it's constantly evolving. There were thousands of Pelicans published, and many, many were republished, so it's pretty much endless. 

Why Pelican?

I first started collecting Pelican books purely for the subject matter: A short History of the World; The Greeks; The Status Seekers, Knuckle Sandwich etc. But I soon became fascinated by their covers, and then the names: Germano Facetti; Alan Aldridge; David Gentleman; Gerald Cinamon; John Sewell; Bruce Robertson, etc.... Who are they? what else did they do? I needed to know more. 

I became addicted to searching the Op-shop shelves and soon realised that most of the subject matter was interesting, and most of the covers were great. So inevitably a few little blue books gradually became a shelf full, then a wall...

There is very little information on the Internet about Pelican, but plenty on Penguin, which makes them all the more intriguing. 

Almost there

It has been a long time since I decided to blog my collection of Pelican books. In that time I have mainly just collected more, but I eventually managed to scan all of the books I have so far. I had previously Photographed them, with unsatisfactory results. I am now deciding how best to display them, and compiling the information.