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book (design) story #165

günther o. dyhrenfurth:
dämon himalaya

benno schwabe & co. verlag, basel, 1935
printer: benno schwabe & co. verlag, basel
size: 25 x 18 cm
designer: hermann eidenbenz

on the rear panel of this dustjacket there are ads for alpinist books by a basel-based swiss publishing company, benno schwabe & co. if the style reminds you of tschichold's work for the bücherkreis in the early 1930s, this is no coincidence: after jan tschichold (1902-1974) left germany for switzerland in 1933, he worked for schwabe who also published this seminal book.

the jacket's front panel features an impressive photomontage of a huge tibetan three-eyed demon mask above dramatic clouds. the sans-serif title is surrounded by asymmetric rules and amorphous shapes in yellow. there is a script signature "eidenbenz" in the lower left corner. the brothers hermann (1902-1993), willi (1909-1998), and reinhold eidenbenz opened their basel-based graphic design studio in 1933 (see their ad in this catalogue designed by tschichold). but what's this book about?

on the rather traditionally designed inner pages we learn that this book is a report about the 1934 international himalayan expedition led by günter oskar dyhrenfurth (1886-1975).

apparently one goal of the expedition was to produce material for a dramatic mountain film called "der dämon des himalaya" (the demon of the himalaya), a mixture of documentary and fiction. the title of the film refers to a tibetan mask of a demon who protects the mountains from being climbed by alpinists. the music for the film was written by the man depicted on the current swiss 20 franc banknote, arthur honegger (1892-1955). some of the footage was later recycled in "lost horizon" (1937) by frank capra and in "storm over tibet" (1952).

the book includes great photos and a foldout panorama.