"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munro, "What is Remembered"
Yes, there are some serious creases and wear marks on some of the covers, but it is difficult to find pristine copies of thirty-nine-year-old-plus paperbacks, especially when one limits one’s search to local bookstores:
I don’t really like any of the above covers, with the exception, perhaps, of the Uncharted Stars cover, which I feel is a step up from the others in terms of draftsmanship, composition, technique, originality, and wit.
You are definitely going to want to “Click Image to Enlarge” this one:
On 02 August 2007, the above painting sold at auction for US$17,327.50.
Jones really began to hit his stride as a skilled cover artist with a distinctive stylistic sensibility in the early 1970s:
I don’t much care for any of these covers from 1968 and 1969, but since I have yet to break out of the collector/completist mentality — and believe me, I’ve tried — here they are, scanned and posted for your “enjoyment”:
To make up for the lacklustre art this time round, my next post will feature two covers by Jones from the early 1970s that I think are very strong, along with one that I have mixed feelings about, so stay tuned for that!
If you have been following my posts over the past few days, you’ll already know why I decided the time was right to scan and post this:
If you have not been following along, click here to jump to my post on Lucian Freud’s The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer.
Further selections from a growing collection of brittle books that I’ve purchased just so I could scan the covers, post them here, lean back in my chair, and admire my own busywork:
The main thing to notice here is the improvement in Jones’s compositions, draftsmanship, and paint handling, from 1968 to 1971. There’s an awful lot of fudging going on in those covers from 1968 and 1969! There’s noticeably less fudging in the 1971 covers, however, which are not only very good in themselves but point the way to Jones’s terrific mid-1970s work for Zebra/Kensington and others.
Ragged Claws Network 