wiedler.ch

book (design) story #571

richard wright:
schwarz unter weiss

europäische verlagsanstalt gmbh, frankfurt am main, around 1948
printer: heliographia s. a. lausanne
size: 24 x 17 cm
photographer: walker evans, dorothea lange etc.
designer: a. hein kruse (jacket + cover), richard paul lohse (inner pages)

"black among white – far from africa" is the (translated) title of this german edition of a book by american black writer richard wright (1908-1960). but which one of his books?

the photomontage jacket and the cover are credited to a. hein kruse (dates?), a typographer based in frankfurt/main.

after the title page the book starts to look familiar: ...

... yes, it is book 38, repackaged for germany!

richard paul lohse (1902-1987) later recalled in a text that some büchergilde officials disapproved of his modernist design of this book. lohse also mentioned the somewhat weak title translation given by büchergilde zürich president hans oprecht: "we negroes in america" – while wright's original title was "20 million black voices", see story 39. well, it looks like the frankfurt publishers didn't like oprecht's title either – but is the remark "far from africa" really any better...? and of course the new, centred title page is a total mismatch to lohse's asymmetric typography.