Here are some covers of books, from the 1960s to the 1980s, that I lost through the shifting sands of time – or had to return to the library. Through the magic of the Internet I can see them again (click on images to enlarge):
The Story of Toby – my first book. I was about four or five. After a while the pages started falling out.
The How and Why Wonder Book of Beginning Science – I did all the things on the cover except the weather vane. I made a periscope out of milk cartons. The book was part of a series. The back covers all looked like this:
Vesalius: Lectures – this is not a cover but a picture inside that was burned into my brain. This was one of my father’s books. It was all written in Latin! I was amazed that a language could have so many m’s.
Golden Nature Guide: Stars – my favourite book when I was seven or eight.
Peter Pan – I wanted to fly! But I also wanted to be a mermaid.
The Berlitz Self-Teacher Russian – I had this book at age nine! Probably because my father took Russian at university.
Eloise Lambert and Mario Pei: Our Names – the first book I ever got out on my grandmother’s library card. The second book I got out was about Roman roads.
Time-Life: Early Man – my mother bought some of the Time-Life science books, like this one. They were great as a writing surface. This is the one with that famous picture of the ascent of man:
Charles W. Ferguson: The Abecedarian Book – this is the book where I learned the word gerrymander:
Desmond Morris: The Naked Ape – I had heard about sex before I read this book, but it sounded far-fetched to me, like the Eucharist. After I read this, I knew that even zoologists agreed with the rumours.
Isaac Asimov: Second Foundation – They do not make cool covers like this any more, not for science fiction.
Isaac Asimov: Science, Numbers and I – one of his collection of science essays that he would come out with every two years or so. I used to eat them up like popcorn, but now they are hard to find.
Larry Niven: Tales of Known Space – a star chart on the cover, with real stars, like Tau Ceti, and a timeline of the next thousand years just inside. How could I resist?
Lerone Bennett, Jr: Before the Mayflower – where I first learned about much of Black history. At school we were taught that Blacks were slaves, then were freed by Lincoln, then failed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and then, either Rosa Parks ended racism or the school year ended before she got a chance.
Aristotle: Ethics – in the 1980s all my classics were Penguin classics.
R. Prehoda: Your Next Fifty Years – I wish I still had this book now that we are some 30 years in. If I remember correctly, we were going to go through a Malthusian crisis and then be ruled by computers. Or something like that.
– Abagond, 2017, 2018.
Images: all come from Google Images.
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OMG, I remember the How and Why Science books!
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@ jefe
LOL, I knew you would!
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I have Lerone Bennett’s Before The Mayflower in my own personal library.
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Nerds up!
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Nerds up!
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I remember the How and Why Science books were at my grade school. That back cover!!
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Huh, on that photo of the back cover, it even says School Edition. I wonder what the difference was between those and the editions (presumably) made for home use.
Can’t remember which titles I read, just that they were some of our main reference books at school.
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I loved, loved, loved the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov!
The urban planet Trantor seemed to embody the greatest 1960s and 1970s fears of out of control megapolises spreading all over the world.
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I used to have a book that was an illustrated guide to the history, technology, and physics of aircraft. It was hardcover and its cover had a false-color image of the airflow around the fuselage and wing roots of an F-16 fighter. I don’t even remember the title, just the cover image. I loved that book when I was a small child but I didn’t really understand much of it. Unfortunately I can’t find it so I can buy it again and re-read it as an adult.
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This may not count as a “lost” book cover but I remember being frightened by the title as a child.
My mother had it lying around the house during the time she was studying for a Masters degree in Sociology. As a kid, I never had the nerve to ask her about the book or what lay beyond freedom and dignity.
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@ Afrofem
“Beyond Freedom and Dignity” is one of my lost book covers too!
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@ Abagond
I’m glad it fit in the theme of this post.
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The Abecedarian book has me curious i love the whimsy. I saw it on Amazon it was very cheap I would purchase it for my library I love words.
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@Afrofem: Thank you for sharing.
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Added Peter Pan….
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