Penguin have just released their Penguin By Hand collection, six well-loved novels by women, all with 'handcrafted' jackets. Above is Kathryn Stockett's The Help with a beautiful quilt for a jacket; it's by Brenda Riddle, and she talks about the making of it here.
You can see the other covers in the series on the National Book Tokens website where you can enter a draw to win the set.
At the excellent Readers and Writers Shop at the New York Public Library this summer I bought the Penguin Threads edition of The Secret Garden
with its deckle edge and embroidered cover by Jillian Tamaki. I was reading Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina's biography Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life of the Author of "The Secret Garden" at the time, and there are a number of New York connections as Mrs. Burnett had a home there and there is in Central Park a memorial fountain.
Just by the way, I noted a couple of passages from the biography:
"Throughout her life, Frances was known for five things: her unrelenting literary production, which often drove her to illness; her love of beautiful clothes and domestic surroundings; her inability to remain settles in any one place, or even in one country; her wonderful gardens; and in the second half of her life, compassion and enormous generosity to friends and strangers alike."
"With the best that was in me I have tried to write more happiness into the world."
Would that every writer could say the same.
Now you've done it...I will be obsessing about The Secret Garden for the next few days...at the very least! They're beautiful, Karen.
Posted by: Cosy Books | 12 September 2015 at 01:14 PM
Thanks so much for writing about these Cornflower - they are stunning!
Posted by: Caroline | 12 September 2015 at 09:02 PM
".....these editions are almost too beautiful to shelf." I do agree!
Posted by: Fran H-B | 13 September 2015 at 06:33 AM
I'm with Cosy! Just when you thought passion for The Secret Garden was settled!
Posted by: Martina | 13 September 2015 at 10:41 AM
I've not read The Secret Garden for years! That beautiful edition is going on my - is it too early to say - Christmas list!
Posted by: Nicola | 13 September 2015 at 09:09 PM
Aren't those covers lovely? The same artist designed some reissues of Jane Austen novels, and even though I already own it in another edition, I bought Emma anyway. The Secret Garden is a lovely story.
Posted by: Danielle | 24 September 2015 at 08:40 PM