The Red Pony (Heinemann New Windmills, 1990)

Clearly a modern edition, aimed at students. Illustrations (and cover) by Robert Hodgson. I wouldn't buy this edition nowadays, but when I started collecting I bought any book by Steinbeck I could find...

The Red Pony (Bantam Books, 1955)

Obviously red would be a logical colour for this book. The designer remains unknown. This book is larger than the previous edition, and also features the story Junius Maltby from The Pastures of Heaven.

The Red Pony (Bantam Books, 1948)

A very nice looking edition with a movie tie-in (starring Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum). This time The Grapes of Wrath is named as a selling point.

Het beloofde land (The Pastures of Heaven, Salamander, 1966)

Dutch edition of The Pastures of Heaven, with a cover drawn by H. Berserik.

The Pastures of Heaven (Bantam Books, 1956)

Small alterations to the cover of the 1952 edition make this one different. East of Eden isn't mentioned any more. Instead it says on the cover that nearly eight million of Steinbeck's books have been sold in  Bantam editions.

The Pastures of Heaven (Bantam Books, 1952)

A nice anonymous picture on the cover of this Bantam edition.

The Pastures of Heaven (World Publishing Company, 1947)

No dustjacket, so a rather dull cover for this 1947 edition of The Pastures of Heaven (1932).

Een handvol goud (Cup of Gold, Meulenhoff, 1965)

 A dutch paperback edition of Cup of Gold. A cover drawing typical of the sixties, drawn by Bert Bouman.

Cup of Gold (Bantam Books 1962)

A completely and more mature cover on the 1962 edition of the Bantam book. The designer isn't mentioned. I personally like the older editions a lot better, but there is something to be said for this design...

Cup of Gold (Corgi Books 1958)

The artist who drew this cover, did have a good look at the Bantam edition. The figures in the background are copied to this new drawing. Instead of the buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan, this time La Santa Roja takes center stage. The signature seems to say Richards.

Cup of Gold (Bantam Books 1953)

Another dramatic cover, and once again the artist is unknown.

Cup of Gold (Popular Library, ?)

Cup of Gold (1929) was John Steinbeck's first novel. It was different from all his other books in that this was a historical novel, an adventure starring buccaneers.
The dramatic cover makes the book almost look like a children's book on pirates, even if the dress does reveal a lot of the lady's bust... The artist is not mentioned, nor is the year of this edition.

Judging Steinbeck by the Covers

Ever since I had to give an introduction to the film The Grapes of Wrath while still a student, I have loved John Steinbeck's books more and more. So I started to buy his books. First translated in Dutch, but I wanted to read the original words John Steinbeck had written so many years ago. I therefore started collecting all the titles in the original language. Some books were easy to find, others took some time. I discovered that paperbacks from the forties, fifties and sixties had these beautiful 'pulp' covers, which seemed to be more suited for romantic novels or, even 'worse', erotic books... These paperbacks became my main focus, I started collecting these covers (with the rest of the book still attached of course). And I naturally couldn't resist a first edition when I could get my hands on one at a decent price...

In this blog I will show my Steinbeck collection, and I will keep it up-to-date with all the new additions...