This post was originally published in September of 2007, just a couple of months after I started blogging. What an adventure this blogging experiment has turned out to be.
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Today I thought it might be fun to show you a few rather old but quite interesting dust jackets from a handful of my favorite books. All of the books are, of course, by Elizabeth Goudge!
This first one is her autobiography,
The Joy of the Snow, copyright 1974, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London. I start with this cover because of what is depicted: the seventeenth-century cottage, called Rose Cottage, where Elizabeth Goudge lived for nearly 40 years until she died in 1984. Rose Cottage is located in Dog Lane, just off Peppard Common, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. How quaint is that address! It's like my dream of the perfect place to live...a quaint old cottage in a narrow lane somewhere in the beautiful English countryside.
On pages 246-7, Ms. Goudge describes the area when she first moved there:
In those days Peppard Common could still be said to be in the country. A few houses were grouped around it and to the north the road that crossed the common disappeared towards Henley between tall elm trees, the village pond to the left and the seventeenth-century inn, The Dog, to the right. The entrance to Dog Lane could hardly be seen where it left the road beside the inn, and the two cottages in the lane hiding behind the inn could hardly be seen either. Dog Lane is very ancient, it was a Pack and Prime lane, and is still called that when it reaches Henley. The men with their pack-horses primed their pistols when they rode up from the river to the wild common lands above. The two cottages are called Primrose Cottage and Rose Cottage and have been called those names for perhaps three hundred years...
Living there, Ms. Goudge was inspired to write an historical novel called
The White Witch, copyright 1958, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London, a fascinating story about that area of Oxfordshire. She includes in the story a woman, the "white witch," who lives in Rose Cottage. The home was featured on the book's dust jacket, and you can see the resemblance to the cottage on
The Joy of the Snow's jacket.
Interestingly (to me anyway), about a year ago, when I had nothing better to do, I "Googled" Dog Lane, Peppard Common and found that Rose Cottage was being offered for sale for 695,000 British Pounds, which I believe is just over $1 million in US currency. And the other cottage in Dog Lane, Primrose Cottage, had recently sold for 725,000 British Pounds. Guess I won't be moving there—not at those prices!
And now for the dust jacket from her book
The Rosemary Tree, copyright 1956, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York. This is extra special to me because the wonderful illustrations are found on both the front and the back of the jacket. I just love the style and color of these old-fashioned drawings! And in my opinion, the story is just as delightful the art depicting it.
Next we have this charming dust jacket for
Gentian Hill, copyright MCMXLIX, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York. Do you know what year those Roman numerals indicate? I don't; my dear hubby translated them for me - it is 1949. I am enamored of those sailing ships in the bay and the view from the little chapel on the cliff above the sea.
Old sailing ships have always fascinated me, probably from reading about them in Elizabeth Goudge's books,
Gentian Hill and
Green Dolphin Street (or
Green Dolphin Country, as it was first published in England). Perhaps you would be interested to know that Hollywood made a movie in the 1940's of her
Green Dolphin novel (sadly, my copy is
sans dust jacket).
My penultimate offering for your viewing pleasure is the dust jacket for
A City of Bells, first published in 1936; my edition was published in 1949, Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., London. That bow window in the little building with the bookseller sign above it is significant to the story, as are the people approaching the shop's front door.
And finally,
The Dean's Watch, copyright 1960, Coward-McCann, Inc., New York. See the cathedral towering over the square, and the clock shop across the way? And the characters standing there? They are all part of this fabulous story set in a cathedral town based on the English town of Ely, where Elizabeth Goudge lived in her youth with her parents. Her father, Principal of the Theological College at
Wells Cathedral, was offered a canonry at
Ely Cathedral and the family moved there for the sake of her mother's health. Ms. Goudge says on page 100 of her autobiography "...for me, Ely was the home of all homes."
All of these lovely dust jackets contain hints about what's inside the pages of these novels, as any good jacket must. I've read these stories so many times since the 1960's that it's almost as though I have personally met the characters, and this is yet another reason why I so enjoy looking at them as the artists conceived of them in each of these wonderful illustrations.
I hope you enjoyed my little tour!
