Covermakers Chat Thread

Post by **Leni** » August 31st, 2020, 6:53 pm

Hello! It's me again.

I am cataloging yet another solo by Rachel Moraes, should be done in a few minutes: https://librivox.org/o-abolicionismo-by-joaquim-nabuco/

It's a very important work in political science about abolition in Brazil. It was written only a few years before the end of slavery. The reader has a couple of suggestions for interesting pictures for the cover, in case anybody wishes to use them:

1) http://memoria.bn.br/DocReader/DocReader.aspx?bib=332747&pagfis=1568 - maybe a bit strong, but it is the cover of a magazine from around the same time the book was published

2) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Debret,_Mercado_de_escravos.jpg This is a painting by a French artist who lived in Brazil, depicting a slave market that is mentioned in the book.

Thanks again to all our great cover artists.

Post by **Availle** » August 31st, 2020, 6:58 pm

Okay, I'll have a go at this. The first image is pretty...

but yes, I think it would make the better cover.

Post by **annise** » August 31st, 2020, 7:23 pm

What a great image - maybe that is what should be done instead of pulling down statues - build one nearby. Offer an alternative view of history.

Post by **Availle** » August 31st, 2020, 7:32 pm

Cover is done.

If we're going for "alternative facts", that'll be a lot of statues.

But yes, I do get what you mean.

johng · Post by **johng** » September 8th, 2020, 1:53 pm

Mark Twain And the Happy Island is done.
There are a number of PD pictures showing MT with young girls.
I hope whoever signs up for this book wll consider using one since the book is very much about MT’s strong feelings for being with young girls.

msfry · Post by **msfry** » September 8th, 2020, 3:29 pm

johng wrote: ↑September 8th, 2020, 1:53 pm Mark Twain And the Happy Island is done.
There are a number of PD pictures showing MT with young girls.
I hope whoever signs up for this book wll consider using one since the book is very much about MT’s strong feelings for being with young girls.

It sounds interesting, John, and I have a free slot. But I don't see a single image on the IA text link. Just captions on a blank page. Please advise.

Post by **annise** » September 8th, 2020, 4:22 pm

johng wrote: ↑September 8th, 2020, 1:53 pm Mark Twain And the Happy Island is done.
There are a number of PD pictures showing MT with young girls.
I hope whoever signs up for this book will consider using one since the book is very much about MT’s strong feelings for being with young girls.

I guess it's a sign of the times - but that is definitely a statement that would be subject to misinterpretation

Anne

Post by **annise** » September 8th, 2020, 4:39 pm

I did a google search on Mark Twain and young girls
https://www.google.com/search?channel=crow2&client=firefox-b-d&q=mark+twain+young+girl

personal opinion - I wouldn't touch them with a 10ft pole.

Anne

Post by **Availle** » September 8th, 2020, 5:23 pm

Yeah, me neither. One of them is even from a page "famous pedophiles".

It may have been completely innocent too (from wikipedia). That was after two of his own daughters had died and a third one died in 1909.

Twain formed a club in 1906 for girls whom he viewed as surrogate granddaughters called the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club. The dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to 16. He exchanged letters with his "Angel Fish" girls and invited them to concerts and the theatre and to play games. Twain wrote in 1908 that the club was his "life's chief delight". In 1907, he met Dorothy Quick (aged 11) on a transatlantic crossing, beginning "a friendship that was to last until the very day of his death".

But yes, times do change, and the images can definitely be misinterpreted.

johng · Post by **johng** » September 8th, 2020, 5:25 pm

I know it sounds creepy!! But the book shows a very different kind of reality… And it’s told by one of his “angel fish” so who’s to say??
Yes he did like being with young girls and he did call them his angel fish but he also had their mothers along with them at all times!! So, what are you going to believe??

msfry · Post by **msfry** » September 8th, 2020, 5:32 pm

annise wrote: ↑September 8th, 2020, 4:22 pm
johng wrote: ↑September 8th, 2020, 1:53 pm Mark Twain And the Happy Island is done.
There are a number of PD pictures showing MT with young girls.
I hope whoever signs up for this book will consider using one since the book is very much about MT’s strong feelings for being with young girls.
I guess it's a sign of the times - but that is definitely a statement that would be subject to misinterpretation

Anne

What?

Post by **Availle** » September 8th, 2020, 5:58 pm

johng wrote: ↑September 8th, 2020, 5:25 pm I know it sounds creepy!! But the book shows a very different kind of reality… And it’s told by one of his “angel fish” so who’s to say??
Yes he did like being with young girls and he did call them his angel fish but he also had their mothers along with them at all times!! So, what are you going to believe??

I'm going to believe that maybe another image is a more prudent choice.

I like the one on page 2 from the book "Out fom under the shadows stepped a grey figure". How about that one?

schrm · Post by **schrm** » September 8th, 2020, 11:48 pm

i couldn't find this image availle.

interesting discussion! and the cover is not claimed, yet. as i have a faible for more difficult covers, i thought over it:
i had a similar problem with the book of love. the caravaggio amor has the face of a child and whatever i tried, it was really difficult to work with it.
so, i edited it heavily, took a part of the image only - and i'm very happy with the result for a more scientific book.
just to add: i think it is problematic to sexualize pictures some hundred years after they were made.

i thought of claiming the twain cover but in short, i think, most of these pictures won't make a good cover in my styles.

and more important: the images i found have copyright problems at least at that sites.
and the book itself is not pd in europe..
so i cannot use the pictures in the book, too (there are several versions without censored pictures).

and the angelfish pin pics - i think they are fascinating.

summarized, someone else will have to claim this.

johng · Post by **johng** » September 9th, 2020, 4:35 am

Perhaps the pic of MT, an Angel Fish, and an attendant with the donkey cart??
The donkey cart us an important element in the remembrance.

Post by **Availle** » September 9th, 2020, 4:52 am

johng wrote: ↑September 9th, 2020, 4:35 am Perhaps the pic of MT, an Angel Fish, and an attendant with the donkey cart??
The donkey cart us an important element in the remembrance.

I might be more susceptible to the donkey cart.

I don't want to claim rightaway because it's late and I want to get recording, and maybe somebody has a good idea with the image; but if it's still there tomorrow morning, I'll do it.

But please consider reading easier books in the future.

Or learn how to make your own covers?

schrm wrote: ↑September 8th, 2020, 11:48 pm i had a similar problem with the book of love.

Yes, I saw that cover and I went "huh

"
Because, if you edit the image so much to make it practically unrecognisable, what was the point in using that particular image to begin with? I don't get it. Just use another one you're more comfortable with. Or make the cover text-only.

Or return it to the pool, it's not a big deal. As it says elsewhere "We're all volunteers and things happen."
There's no need to torture yourself here. (That's my job.

)