{"id":4437,"date":"2022-05-13T07:56:19","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T14:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4437"},"modified":"2022-05-13T07:59:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T14:59:36","slug":"a-story-told-in-cover-art-murder-at-the-vicarage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/a-story-told-in-cover-art-murder-at-the-vicarage\/","title":{"rendered":"A Story Told in Cover Art: Murder at the Vicarage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agatha Christie\u2019s first Miss Marple book, The Murder at the Vicarage, <\/em>was published by Collins Crime Club in the UK in October of 1930. It\u2019s one of my very favorite books \u2013 with its clever plot, humor, beautifully rendered characters and of course, the introduction in novel form of the subversive Miss Marple, it stands the test of time and has never been out of print.\u00a0 For that reason, it\u2019s fun to look at covers through the years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The US first edition of Vicarage<\/em> was published by Dodd, Mead and is what I would think of as a \u201cprestige\u201d cover, with its old English font and decorous arrangement of text.\u00a0 There\u2019s no art to speak of, no interpretation of the plot.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>In 1947, White Circle (the paperback imprint of Collins Crime) published a puzzling green cover.\u00a0 The menacing black and white figures have little to do with Christie\u2019s village mystery, much of it set, as the title implies, within the confines of the vicarage (though expeditions to gardens and tennis courts are taken).\u00a0 In 1948, Penguin put out one of their classic green covers, another in a line of what I think of as prestige covers.<\/p>\n

That same year (1948) a US mapback edition was published by Dell, the now vintage and highly collectible paperbacks with maps on the back covers.\u00a0 This cover has some style to it, with interesting fonts and some artwork that actually relates to the plot \u2013 a giant listening ear and a portrait of the murder victim.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little sensational but it\u2019s the first cover that seems to relate to the story.\u00a0 This is now 18 years after first publication.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>In 1956, talented designer and artist Milton Glaser put his mind to the cover, resulting in one of my favorite covers in the series.\u00a0 It\u2019s a strong, modern design of the vicar peering through the slats of his window blind.\u00a0 Whether or not the blind fits the 1930\u2019s is almost irrelevant, the design is so excellent.\u00a0 This is a Dell paperback, and the first cover where Christie\u2019s name is on top of the title, as well as in a larger font than the title, indicating her growing popularity as a brand.<\/p>\n

In 1961 there\u2019s another Dell paperback, also with a fair amount of interpretive artwork on the cover.\u00a0 Christie\u2019s name is again on the top though the font is the same size.\u00a0 The artwork here is more quotidian, but it\u2019s still a pleasant cover that conveys a feel for the book.<\/p>\n

The UK 1961 paperback is far different.\u00a0 When I was in college, I spent a lot of time in the costume shop at the theater and one of our pet peeves was the inappropriate zipper \u2013 for example, in a Western, if a woman has a zipper on the back of her dress \u2013 well, it\u2019s just not period.\u00a0 This UK cover has a similar problem: the woman in the illustration has a very 1960\u2019s outfit on.\u00a0 The cover, with the text \u201cAppointment with an assassin\u201d makes this charming village puzzle mystery seem like a suspense novel.\u00a0 It\u2019s a reframing for sure, and I actually like this cover, it just doesn\u2019t have much to do with the actual book.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>In 1963 comes the first Tom Adams cover.\u00a0 Tom Adams, for those unfamiliar, took on Christie as a fully interpretive art project.\u00a0 He designed wraparound covers for Pocket in the US and straight covers for Fontana in the UK.\u00a0 His first almost traditional still life cover for Vicarage<\/em> is simply a phone, a gun, a tube of paint and a bookshelf.\u00a0 According to the website Beautiful Books, the tube of paint is an authentic 1930\u2019s tube owned by the artist\u2019s grandfather.<\/p>\n

His next cover (he often did 2 or 3 for the same book) comes in 1968 and is another favorite of mine, embracing Adams\u2019 surrealist style.\u00a0 It shows a vicar with a tennis racket for a head.\u00a0 Again, Adams did his research and used the Dunlop archives to portray a period silhouette for the racket.\u00a0 For more on Adams and his covers I recommend the Beautiful books website https:\/\/beautifulbooks.info\/illustratedbibliographies\/illustrators-and-authors\/collecting-tom-adams-agatha-christie\/<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s completely fascinating and eye opening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 1970, a Dell paperback cover is very 70\u2019s, with an almost Night Gallery<\/em> style creepy cover, including a sinister cat, \u00a0a slashed portrait that seems lifted from a 70\u2019s TV set, along with a requisite bloody knife.\u00a0 Agatha\u2019s name stays above the title in a large font.<\/p>\n

In 1984 \u2013 54 years after publication \u2013 comes a slightly quotidian cover from Berkley but with an actual portrayal of Miss Marple!\u00a0 Christie\u2019s name is in a huge font, and under the title, it\u2019s noted as Marple\u2019s first case.\u00a0 For this reason I include this fairly ordinary cover.\u00a0 A publisher was acknowledging Marple\u2019s importance (another entire essay).<\/p>\n

In 1993 comes a nice UK Harper Collins edition, a tie in to the Geraldine McEwan ITV production.\u00a0 It\u2019s an excellent cover, truly reflecting the novel (as well as the excellent TV production).<\/p>\n

And finally, there\u2019s a 2016 cover from a William Morrow re-issue of hardcover editions.\u00a0 It\u2019s very traditional with a gravestone, large Agatha Christie font, and a subdued color palette.\u00a0 It seems like nothing special, but it certainly is a further cementing of Christie as a brand.\u00a0 What\u2019s next for the Queen of Crime?\u00a0 Look forward to new cover art for this eternal genius storyteller.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agatha Christie\u2019s first Miss Marple book, The Murder at the Vicarage, was published by Collins Crime Club in the UK in October of 1930. It\u2019s one of my very favorite books \u2013 with its clever plot, humor, beautifully rendered characters and of course, the introduction in novel form of the subversive Miss Marple, it stands … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[54,827,829,137,826,828],"class_list":["post-4437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays","tag-agatha-christie","tag-book-cover-art","tag-milton-glaser","tag-miss-marple","tag-murder-at-the-vicarage","tag-tom-adams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4437"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4441,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4437\/revisions\/4441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}