Jesse Marinoff Reyes:
TALKIN’ ‘BOUT THE BEAT G-G-G-G-GENERATION: Here’s a small sampling of how Jack Kerouac and the Beat writers were presented in their time, and from the relatively recent past. Dig it man. More inspiration from the archives…
---JMR Design---
The Ticket That Exploded
Grove Press, 1967
Design: Roy Kuhlman/Kuhlman Associates
A late beat era (or even post-beat) original: so simple, yet so perfect—a mini-poster. Kuhlman (1923-2007) was principal designer of the Grove Press for many years beginning in 1951 (he also designed the original format for The Evergreen Review, the literary magazine published by Grove). Additionally, he worked with Herb Lubalin in advertising and had been art director at Columbia Records for a time. It was through the hundreds of covers he did for Grove that I came to know and admire his work—a resumé in book covers rivaling contemporary greats like Paul Rand and Alvin Lustig.
JMR Design
Big Sur
Bantam Books (First US paperback edition), 1963
Design: uncredited
Illustration: uncredited, signed “M. Hank 3″ or “M. Hark 3″ or M. Harak 3″ (“3″ being shorthand for ’63, or “the third”?)
Here, not only is Kerouac’s name large (and no “Jack”) but his image is incorporated into the cover graphic/montage—his novels being semi-autobiographical, but still. Not as hip typographically, it does suggest mainstreaming in terms of his treatment as an established author. However, it was this kind of handling that got me thinking when crafting Book of Haikus.
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