James has kindly sent me reference to the New Penguin Shakespeare's, with the David Gentleman covers, taken from the book Artwork on the great man. Er...Gentleman that is, not Shakey.
It highlights what a great task it must have been to illustrate all these covers and do it so well, although it took him around ten years to get through them all. It also highlights the task I have ahead of me in trying to collect the lot.
Thanks for the post! These are great editions. I've been trying to collect them for years, picking them up here and there in secondhand bookshops around the world. Still missing several...
Posted by: Dj | 16 March 2008 at 07:13 PM
hello, im just clearing out my bookcase and have a few to sell, would you be interested in any? I could send you an email list of the ones I have.
best wishes,
Gillian
Posted by: Gillian | 11 May 2009 at 03:01 PM
These are so lovely - one of the nicest Penguin series. I think my favourite has to be The Tempest.
We have quite a few of these as home, partially because David Gentleman lived across the road from my Gran for many many years. He's both a great artist and a lovely person - always nice when talent is reflected in personality :)
Posted by: maryhamilton | 13 May 2009 at 07:51 PM
This is a great post, thanks. We used the "Mesaure for Measure" edition at school, so my memory of the play is jumbled up with everything else I was doing aged 17/ 18.
That's the strange thing about a book cover; it gets all mixed up with the text itself, and when and where you were reading it.(Or is that just me?)
Posted by: Johnny | 13 April 2010 at 09:34 AM
do you have any spare Gentleman Shakespeares to sell? thanks
Posted by: leaf | 16 May 2011 at 07:27 PM