Part 2: The Art & Artists of Agatha Christie (IACF 2024)

At the 2024 International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay, Devon, I presented my research into the world of first edition cover art. This article is the second (and final) instalment that collectively share that presentation in its entirity. To read the first instalment, please click the link. Part 1: Link

1936: Murder in Mesopotamia & others. Artist: Cobbledick.

As we move into the later 1930s, Dodd Mead, Christie’s US publisher started using art created by Carl Cobbledick. As seen here, he also created multiple jackets and again, Christie’s name is clear and large on all of them.

Cobbledick was a prolific jacket artist in the States – and one of his original jacket artworks is even held in the Smithsonian Museum. But as you can see here, the dominance of the author’s name on the front is far less on other jackets he designed than we saw with Christie’s books.

1936: Murder in Mesopotamia & others. Artist: Macartney.

The late 30s also marked the first time in Britain that an artist was hired to create more than two jackets – though for these it was Christie herself who chose the artist. The artist was Robin “Mac” Macartney. Of the four books – shown here – Murder in Mesopotamia, Murder in the Mews, Death on the Nile and Appointment with Death – three were connected with her archaeological travels.

So it was fitting that Christie asked one of her friends from these travels to create the covers for her. While her book Come Tell Me How You Live was not to be published for several more years, Christie tells us about when she asked him to create the cover for Murder in Mesopotamia.

And the final result is stunning – a wonderful portrayal of the dig site in Mesopotamia. Christie was obviously pleased with the result, because Mac was hired to create three more jackets. The second jacket he created – Murder in the Mews – is the only one that doesn’t fit the overseas theme – but it is still beautifully evocative.

For Death on the Nile, he created arguably one of the most famous of all the jackets that ever adorned a Christie book – with its wonderful image of the steamship alongside the Temple of Abu Simbel – something that was done in Christie’s day, but no longer is an option for travellers.

The last jacket he designed was for Appointment with Death where he masterly integrated scenes from Petra in Jordan – shamelessly sharing my own travel photos here on the right! Collectively, these Macartney jackets are some of the greatest of their time – and all thanks to Agatha for spotting the talent while out on an archaeological dig!

1937: Dumb Witness. Artist: Nicholson.

While Mac Macartney was designing jackets for Christie, one book she didn’t have him create a jacket for was Dumb Witness – for me personally one of my favourite jackets. The photographic artist was Malcolm Nicholson. This is the original jacket from the book – and I do want to read the text on the rear panel in case you can’t quite make it out:

If it hadn’t been for me, old Monsieur Poirot would never have solved the case. Bob. The not so dumb witness.

Now I’m going to take some artistic license here as the archives don’t have details on how Nicholson secured the appointment to take the photos for this jacket. But in late 1935, about a year and half prior to the publication of Dumb Witness, British newspapers had advertisements and articles about a new book from Country Life about dogs – Tail-Waggers. The ‘art edition’ had 26 mounted etchings of dogs by the photographer Malcolm Nicholson. I like to imagine that Christie saw the book and particularly liked his image of the wire fox terrier.

As we learn from the front flap of the jacket – it was her own dog ‘Peter’ that was photographed for this cover. Is it possible that when she decided she wanted Peter to be photographed for the cover, she chose Nicholson because she had his book – who knows!

But we do know Christie’s love of dogs was captured through this jacket – and I have no doubt it remained meaningful to Christie as sadly Peter died the year after it was published. This book was one of only two where something from her private life made it onto the cover of her fiction books – the other time we’ll talk about shortly.

1939: And Then There Were None (US title). UK Artist: Bellman.

By the late 1930s, not only was Christie actively providing input and design suggestions for jackets, but we also now know that she was even paying attention to the blurbs placed on them. As we see here, Christie wrote to Collins complaining about the blurb on the proof jacket for And Then There Were None.

Dear Mr. Cork,

Any book is ruined when you know exactly what is going to happen all the way along.

Clearly, Collins acted on her feedback and changed the text as the blurb that was published really only sets the scene. It would have been great to see the proof to compare the texts, but sadly no copy has been found.

1940: Sad Cypress. Artist: Barlow.

Some of the best documentation on Christie’s involvement in jacket design comes from correspondence related to her 1940 novel Sad Cypress. The conversation begins in a letter from Christie to her agent – Edmund Cork – dated just a couple of months before the book was published.

Have an idea for the cover of Sad Cypress so don’t let Collins decide irrevocably on some frightful mess – their jackets on most of their books are AWFUL – So Common!!

Well now we know what she thought about many of their jackets – though it’s unclear if she’s talking about her books or Collins in general – I expect a bit of both.

Edmund Cork’s reply informs us that they’d already created a jacket, and he enclosed a proof for her to see, and offered a less than enthusiastic “but it’s not one of their worst”.

Christie clearly had a different vision and was not thrilled.

My idea was that a Black & White jacket would be very arresting & striking – white shiny background and silhouetted cypress and big black lettering – the cypress itself is all right but the effect of it is obliterated by the lettering through & by the very hideous colouring.

Yellow is particularly ugly with the blue and black – and a queer little bit of white (the moon looking like a comma!) looking as though it had been forgotten to be coloured. Can’t you use all your influence? Do! Can’t bear this cypress obliterated by the lettering because it is rather a sinister thing just standing up by itself. Do your best for me. I do think they might consult me first. I care about the appearance of my books.

The reply from her agent is quite telling. He states that Mr. Collins has said “it is quite impossible to alter it” and “it would be unpatriotic to destroy 15,000 copies of a jacket these times of paper shortage”. However, we also see Christie can get the final say as he states “Of course, you always have the last word. If you say it shall not be used, that settles it.”

Well the book was published with the original jacket design. Agatha Christie showed herself to be patriotic – avoiding the unpatriotic action of destroying jackets. Here is the jacket in question – with the moon looking like a comma, and the tree ‘obliterated’ by the lettering.

The artist, Albert Barlow, was not black-listed as a result of this cover. In fact, he went on to produce dozens of covers for Collins and other British publishers in the 1940s, though most of them were just text rich and art light, arguably a shift in cover design influenced by war-driven austerity, and something that was a harbinger of covers to come for Christie.

1940: One Two Buckle My Shoe. Artist: Unknown.

After the debacle with Sad Cypress, we see plenty of correspondence between Christie and her publisher, Billy Collins. Here is an excerpt from a letter she wrote to him prior to the publication of One Two Buckle My Shoe:

My brain is blank about Buckle My Shoe! How about just having a vague patent leather shoe and a gleaming buckle – above big black “question mark”.

Her design was perhaps more closely captured on a later Pan paperback.

The actual jacket used by Collins was far simpler – just illustrating the nursery rhymes stanzas.

1941: Evil Under the Sun. Artist: Rose.

Her input continued. For Evil Under the Sun we learn from her correspondence that she submitted a sketch from a friend as a potential cover. When she sent it to Billy Collins she wrote “I do hope you won’t hate it! I think it looks marvelously evil myself.”

Here is the final design that was used on the first edition. It’s unclear whether the sketch Christie provided was integrated into the final design created by the artist John Rose - but if it was, I think Christie’s friend was also influenced by the work of Salvador Dali, who was at the peak of his fame and celebrity in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

John Rose continued to be an important artist for Collins and was instrumental in designing covers for them in the mid-1950s when Collins launched their new paperback brand – Fontana books. Here are three Christie covers he did for Fontana in their first couple of years. Of note – the style here is very different than the jacket he created for Evil Under the Sun, which makes me thinks the artwork Christie provided may well have influenced its design.

Her input on design didn’t wane, as several more letters show that she just was not thrilled with the jackets being created. For N or M? John Curran found correspondence in the Collins archives where she stated that she was unimpressed with the ‘pinky colour’ and found it more ‘sentimental than murderous.’

Not only was Christie giving feedback on the covers, but she continued to pay close attention to the blurbs on the flaps. In Janet Morgan’s autobiography she references a letter where Christie disliked the proof blurb for The Body in the Library and provided her own suggestion. While I can’t know for certain, I believe she influenced the final blurb which had questions such as ‘Whose body was it?’ and ‘Who placed it there?’, plus the quote from Miss Marple of ‘It reminded me of Tommy Bond and our new schoolmistress. She went to wind up the clock and a frog jumped out’. Certainly this is more provocative than solely a summary of the opening events.

1943: The Moving Finger (US). Artist: Koerner.

Jumping back to the States, I did want to touch on the artist Henry Koerner, who created two covers for Christie books in the early 1940s – The Moving Finger in 1942 and Towards Zero in 1944. Koerner was an Austrian artist who had emigrated to America in 1938 after Hitler’s annexation of his country.

With the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941, the US entered World War II and a collaboration was quickly established between artists and the American government with the objective of creating dynamic posters that would instill patriotism and drive support for the war effort. It was known as “Artists for Victory” and a competition was launched to drive participation by The Museum of Modern Art. It is no surprise that Henry Koerner, a displaced European artist, chose to enter the contest - something I’ll return to in a moment. Beyond this contest, he ended up creating many posters to support the war effort – a selection of them shown here. But how does this connect with Christie.

Well 350 posters were selected as official entries for the contest, which travelled the country and were widely reproduced in magazines and newspapers. His entry in that early 1942 competition was “Someone Talked” – and it won one of the main awards in the contest. His cover was then modified and placed on Christie’s The Moving Finger which was published only a few months later. Christie’s cover thus indirectly supported the patriotic war effort in America but also surely benefitted from the use of an image that was being widely disseminated across the country.

1946: Come Tell Me How You Live. Photographer: Osman.

Back to England now, and we learn that Christie’s attention to detail extended beyond the jacket design and the blurbs. In 1946, Collins published her autobiographical travel book Come Tell Me How You Live and the jacket and book featured photographs by her archaeological friend Louis Osman – affectionately known as ‘Bumps’.

As soon as it was published and Christie received a copy, she wrote to her agent:

Dear Edmund, There is one thing that rather distresses me – no acknowledgment is made in ‘Come Tell Me How You Live’ that the photographs are the work of Louis Osman (Bumps!). ... Could an acknowledgement be made in further editions. That would at least do something to put matters right. …

This continues to confirm that Christie was very attentive to what was actually being published – and certainly not reluctant to provide prompt feedback.

1947: The Labours of Hercules.

Christie’s input on covers continued – with one of her letters regarding the proposed cover for The Labours of Hercules being referenced by both John Curran in his book The Hooded Gunman and Dr. Mark Aldridge in his book Poirot - The Greatest Detective in the World.

Here we have Christie telling us that the artwork appeared to show a naked Poirot going to the bath leading to all sorts of obscene suggestions and telling the publisher to ‘try again’.

Well this is the cover that was published and it’s unclear if it was changed or not. It is possible that Christie was referring to the design on the spine of the book – and if so, it clearly wasn’t changed. Regardless, every time I see this book cover, all I think of is Christie seeing Poirot, naked, going to the bath!

1950s-1970s: Artists: Farnhill, Randall, Tamer.

Between the consistent feedback on the covers and the awareness that her name alone would sell books, it is no surprise that the cover design shifted to simple. Through the 1950s and 1960s, covers were essentially just her name, the title of her book and some bold colours. During this period, two artists created many of the covers for her British Collins published books. They were Kenneth Farnhill and William Randall. Between them at least eight covers are known to be theirs but there’s another five that potentially were. Here are some you may recognize – these all being from Farnhill.

And here’s one by Randall – though others from the period are very similar in design. So potentially he was either involved in them or influenced them. You’ll notice that rather oddly Christie’s name was even listed twice on the cover of Dead Man’s Folly.

You can see that it would be hard to find disagreement about the design when no real artwork is being used.

In the States, one artist, Salem Tamer, created at least eight jackets during this period for Dodd Mead – but potentially more as again not all jackets gave the artist credit. As you can see here, the design aesthetic in the States had also become quite neutral.

And how did Christie feel about these relatively non-descript jackets. Well there’s a quote from her autobiography that I think helps answer that question.

A book jacket may having nothing to do with the plot, but if it does it must at least not represent a false plot.

1973: Postern of Fate. Artist: Karoff.

However, Christie never stopped giving feedback. For example, in the early 1970s in the States, artist Joseph Karoff created three jackets for some of her last books - Elephants Can Remember, Postern of Fate and Poirot’s Early Cases.

Christie wrote to Phelps Platt, the President of her US publisher, Dodd Mead, commending him on the jacket for Postern of Fate and the inclusion of a list of all her novels.

I should like also to congratulate you on your edition of POSTERN OF FATE which has been beautifully produced and I think that the dust cover is exceptionally handsome. Incidentally it is very useful to have in the front of the book what appears to be a complete list of 63 detection novels. I believe that the only titles omitted are those which contain short stories.

Her attention to all aspects of her published books never wavered.

1974: Postern of Fate. Photographer: Murray.

But the artist and books I’d like to end on are the British editions of Postern of Fate and Poirot’s Early Cases – after many years of simple designs, Collins hired the photographic artist Margaret Murray to create the covers. I’ll share why I think this happened in a moment.

But first, I think it’s important to recognize Margaret Murray as an artist. Known as Maggie Murray, she is a photojournalist and documentary photographer with a particular interest in social issues. She trained as a photographer at Regent Street Polytechnic in the 1960s, now the University of Westminster. And in the 1970s she was a member of the creatively named 'Hackney Flashers' – a mixed media collective.

During this period, she was hired by Collins to create jackets for many of their authors. In 1982 she founded ‘Format Photographers’, a women-only photographic agency – to support the careers of women in this field. She travelled widely – supporting the efforts of many global NGOs and charities, and also photographed many famous personalities. Today, many of her portraits are held by the National Portrait Gallery while the majority of her archives, including her dust jacket designs, are held at the Bishopsgate Institute in London.

Taking the books slightly out of order I want to comment on Murray’s cover of Poirot’s Early Cases first. In Christie’s interview with Lord Snowdon in 1974, now almost 84 years old, she stated:

I have had two or three possible book jackets, you know, not representing Hercule Poirot, nothing like him whatsoever. For one thing he is 6ft. high on every jacket and wearing clothes he wouldn't have worn. I think the jacket of a book should only be half-length of the character unless there is some special reason for it. If it's a pregnant woman and the book is about a pregnant woman that would be all right.

I think this is such a wonderful quote – but when viewed in context with the photograph Maggie Murray and Collins put on the cover of the book published in the same year, I find it rather amusing. I’m not sure if it was the lower half of Poirot that Christie felt should be shown… but it’s what we were given.

Now back to Postern of Fate and why I think Collins returned to a photograph for this book. In Postern of Fate, Tommy and Tuppence’s dog – Hannibal – has a meaningful role – though not of the scale of Bob in Dumb Witness. But, as with that book, the dog was based on one of Agatha’s own dogs – a Manchester Terrier – and Christie clearly wanted a photo of her dog on the jacket of the book – as shown here. The Christie Archives have confirmed it was a family snapshot – probably taken by Max as I think Agatha may be sitting in the chair to the rear left – though there is debate as to whether it was her dog Bingo or Treacle. But I speculate that it was Christie’s desire to have her dog on this cover that caused Collins to hire Maggie Murray to take a photograph for the front cover - so that the whole cover could be photographic. It’s also a fitting cover to end on – as it was the last novel Christie wrote and one whose jacket also had a very personal connection.

I hope you’ve enjoyed exploring this world of dust jacket art, and their artists, and how Christie was involved in their design over the years. If you’d like to learn more about Christie’s books, jackets, and artwork, then do consider going to my website and various social media platforms – you’ll find lots of content there to read – with new material added all the time.

Below are two slides showing several books that contain a lot of cover art. The first slide is content that is broader than just Christie. The two by Cooper and Pike are out of print though used copies can be found. Cover Me focuses on the covers or Pan paperbacks while The Hooded Gunman covers all the Collins Crime Club books.

For those interested in Christie's Fontana paperbacks created by Tom Adams, the two on the left are essential. The middle book focuses more on Christie's first edition hardbacks, while the two books by Dr. Mark Aldridge contain copious images of Christie's books from many different publishers.

So with that - Thank you all for coming and listening – it has truly been my honour to share this presentation with you.

I hope converting this presentation to a written format with slides enabled you to enjoy the content. Do let me know if you have any corrections, feedback or additions.

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