New Naturalist book covers
I pride myself on judging a book by its cover, especially if that book cover is a New Naturalist one. The British natural history series has been running for over 60 years and has published over 100 volumes, ranging from Alien Plants to Solitary Bees. The series is highly collectable, some individual volumes only being published in small runs and selling in large sums. I notice abebooks is selling a complete set for £7,500.
Though the series is distinguished by its authoritative authors, mostly eminent scientists, what sets them from other natural history books are their striking covers. Early covers (above) were designed by the husband and wife team of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis. The couple met in 1931 at Regent Street Polytechnic, married a few years later and soon became a successful design team. They produced posters, book covers and wallpaper designs throughout the 1930s, using lithography as a technique, their designs containing strong outlines and often featuring animals.
They were invited by the book publishers Collins to design book jackets for a new series they were producing, The New Naturalists. It was a perfect match, and the Ellis’ went on to produce over 90 covers.
Their last cover was in 1985, The Natural History of Orkney, which has become highly collectable as only 725 were printed. Subsequent volumes have been designed by artist Robert Gillmor (who retired some years ago and died last year). Four of his covers are below and are equally as distinctive as the Ellis’. Artist Robert Greenhalf is the new designer of the covers, Peak District by Penny Anderson being his first one last year.
• A book called Art of the New Naturalists (published 2009) explores the history of the dust jackets.
