Faber Poetry Editions
It’s no secret that I like pretty books (see here and here). So I was obviously delighted to find that Faber & Faber has released another beautiful set of hardbacks. The six poetry books from the Faber Poetry Collection 2010 are:
- Ariel by Sylvia Plath (cover illustration by Sarah Young)
- Dart by Alice Oswald (cover illustration by Jonathan Gibbs)
- Kid by Simon Armitage (cover illustration by Peter Clayton)
- Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis by Wendy Cope (cover illustration by Ed Kluz)
- Nil, Nil by Don Paterson (cover illustration by Charles Shearer)
- The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin (cover illustration by Michael Kirkman)
I just love the specially commissioned hardcover prints that Faber does. They also did an 80th anniversary collection of poetry editions. Find out more here.
I’ve been drooling over Faber’s gorgeous 80th anniversary poetry covers ever since spotting them on designsponge last week. Illustrators and printmakers were commissioned for the covers of six new editions of twentieth-century poetry (by W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath, John Betjemen, T.S. Eliot, and Ted Hughes) and the woodcut and linocut results on the covers and matching endpapers are just beautiful. I recently started dabbling in linocuts and found these to be fantastic inspiration. Visit FaceOut Books for a great description of project designer Miriam Rosenbloom’s process, including how themes, artists, and unifying elements were chosen. I’d think they’d make beautiful gifts. 
Poetry of WH Auden, poems selected by John Fuller, cover by Paul Catherall
Poetry of Sylvia Plath, poems selected by Ted Hughes, cover by Peter Lawrence
Poetry of John Betjeman, poems selected by Hugo Williams, cover by Joe McLaren
Poetry of T.S. Eliot, poems selected by T.S. Eliot, cover by Clare Curtis
W.B. Yeats, poems selected by Seamus Heaney, cover by Heaney Nick Morley
Poetry of Ted Hughes, poems selected by Simon Armitage, cover by Mark Hearld