Covers III
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Thanks everybody, for your comments on Comfort me with Apples. I have to admit that when I started reading comments on Amazon like, "I wouldn't want my children to know this woman," I was taken aback. But then the sixties, seventies, pre-Aids world was a very different place.
On to Garlic and Sapphires, which has been my most popular book.
The original jacket, which we copied from a picture taken at Gotham Bar and Grill for an article in Newsweek when I first got to the New York Times, is of a waiter holding a plate of pasta so that it obscures my face. The wonderful Romulo Yanes shot it in Gourmet's studio at 4 Times Square. I've always liked it.
But other countries, other covers. Here are a few:
The Norwegian hardback edition reprised the American cover, although the colors are decidedly more garish.
Thai version - lovely little line drawings on each chapter opening (by the same artist who did the cover).
I don't speak Hebrew, so I don't know why the Israeli version has a man on the cover. But they do make up for it, by having a HUGE photograph of me, split, divided between the flaps.
Chinese version, in paperback. But this is actually a jacket. Take it off and what is revealed is.....
an onion!
British edition. A bit literal, but in a good way. The restaurant always reminds me of Torrisi Italian Specialties.
Brazillian edition. They are consistent. (See Comfort me with Apples.)
The German edition which was, briefly and implausibly, a best-seller. The title , which translates literally as "fake rabbit," is the German word for meatloaf and a slang expression for a counterfeiter. Kind of a great title translation.
And finally, my all-time favorite. This Complex Chinese version uses two pictures of me taken by Josef Astor for an article in More Magazine. This picture, where I'm dressed in my mother's clothes, is one of the few pictures I have of me in disguise.
Garlic and Sapphires is my favorite of your books (Although Delicious is running a close second!) I love the last Chinese version with you in disguise-- the picture is much better than my imagination! Fun.
I've read Garlic and Sapphires. The last cover is great as is the American/Canadian edition of your book. It's amazing what happens to book titles and covers when they are translated. Good luck with the cover of your next cookbook.
As always you provide savory posts.
I always have the most delightful time reminding my children you exist for mankind.
I wish both my children could know you! I'm still (slightly) in mourning for the end of your reign at Gourmet, though these dispatches help a great deal. Thank you for giving so much for your readers.
I am so enjoying your book cover series! It has made me want to pull my copies off the shelf and re-read. I A-D-O-R-E the photo of you in disguise! I wouldn't have recognized you either!!
Ruth, I wish my children COULD know you! :)