FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE – Ian Fleming
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of this James Bond classic, Ian Fleming publications are offering a unique chance for budding designers to show off their skills – design your own cover for From Russia With Love and share it on twitter, tagging @TheIanFleming and you win a limited Bentley edition of Casino Royale, worth £750. The competition closes on the 18th April 2017.
In the meantime as inspiration, here’s a little Bond history…
Main image: Our latest edition designed by Suzanne Dean. The CMYK team designed the rest of the series - check out the link:
http://vintagebooksdesign.tumblr.com/post/27630753986/vintage-007-behind-the-scenes
Small images, top left:
The
original cover for the first edition by artist Richard Chopping, published in
1957. It was Chopping’s first Bond book (the covers to previous books in the
series had been designed by Pat Marriott and Ian Fleming himself), and
therefore the first to adopt this iconic ‘trompe l’oeil’ style. The rose with a
dew drop was part of Fleming’s request for the cover, and the gun (a Smith
& Wesson .38 M&P special revolver with a sawn barrel) was sent to the
artist at Fleming’s request by Geoffrey Boothroyd - the character that Major
Boothroyd of Q branch was based on. Fleming had asked Boothroyd to send his
favourite gun to Chopping, so it is not actually a gun that is wielded in the
text.
Second:
This is a US Library edition,
published by Macmillan in 1957. The cover depicts the fight between Bond and
Red Grant on the Orient Express in a really interesting style, referencing
train schematics and an almost stencil-like use of silhouette.
Third: This cover, showing James Bond with Tatiana Romanova, is from the first UK paperback edition published by Great Pan in 1959. This depiction of Tatiana strays fairly significantly from the interior descriptions, however Bond is well represented, with his ‘unruly comma of hair’ and chamois leather holster. The cover suggests a pacey narrative through the placement of the speeding Orient Express at the base, and the strapline ‘Death-trap for James Bond’ is simple yet full of menace and intrigue.
Fourth:
The first US paperback of
the book comes from 1960, published by Signet. Interestingly, there is no
mention of James Bond himself on the cover, and instead we are treated to some
enticing reviews: ‘Upper Crust Low Life…Mickey Spillane in gentleman’s
clothing.’ Fitting this description, the imagery is more suggestive of pulp or
noir than cold war espionage. However, the top left corner features the gun and
rose motif from the UK first edition design by Richard Chopping.
Middle left:
Another Great Pan paperback
entry, this time published in the UK in 1962. The Orient Express bisects the
background of abstract, flame-like strokes, which in turn encircle and draw the
eye to Tatiana in the foreground. Here she is depicted closer to how Fleming
described, and the artist has emphasised her ‘Russian’ look through her attire.
The book has received a new strapline: ‘DEATH WITH DISHONOUR is Russia’s
sentence for JAMES BOND’, perfectly outlining SMERSH’s evil plan.
Second:
In 1965, Pan released a new
set of UK paperbacks with covers either by, or influenced by, Raymond Hawkey. The
Fabergé egg with the film inside isn’t directly from the novel, however the
plot revolves around Bond being caught (and filmed) in a honey trap set up by
SMERSH so it is evocative of surveillance and deception within an alluring and
emblematically Soviet exterior.
Third:
This
‘still life’ cover was published in 1974, as part of a set of editions in which
significant items from the plots of the books were showcased in a photographic
portrait. The dagger is from the ‘gipsy wrestling match’, the Turkish delight
is referencing Turkey (and the code word which Bond is told to follow in the
novel). It also alludes to the honey trap orchestrated by Rosa Klebb in which
Bond will be caught by Tatiana. As a departure from the previous editions, it
is Klebb and not Tatiana who features on the cover, face pierced by the wooden
fork. The arrangement also shows Turkish money and Turkish coffee.
Fourth:
This edition from Thomas
and Mercer was published in the US in 2012. The artist is Archie Ferguson, and
the design fits perfectly into the series where the black and white pattern
evocative of classic Russian decoration is highlighted by the brilliant red of
the title and the 007 in the circle.
Bottom left:
The Folio Society
illustrated edition features a cover created by artist Fay Dalton. Bond boards
the Orient Express, joining Tatiana who is eagerly awaiting him as they attempt
to flee the evil clutches of SMERSH. A
plume of steam from the train obscures Bond’s face and suggests uncertainty and
deception.
Bottom Middle: This edition was published in 2008 by Queen Anne Press, available as part of The Complete Works of Ian Fleming. Designed by Webb & Webb and finely-bound by Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe, the Orient Express is shown speeding away from Istanbul, represented by Hagia Sophia. The red star, a symbol associated with Russia, is seen on the top left of the back cover.
Bottom Right:
This edition is the German
adaptation of the UK edition first released by Penguin in 2008, Ian Fleming’s
centenary year. One of a full set of the novels illustrated by Michael Gillette
which featured the principal female lead of each book. Tatiana appears on the cover
in red, a colour symbolic of Cold War Russia. This is the Cross Cult German
edition, for which Gillette amended the cover with bespoke typography for the
German market. The German title of the novel has always featured ‘Moscow’ in
place of ‘Russia’.
