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book (design) story #131

jonny g. rieger:
fahr zur hölle, jonny!

büchergilde gutenberg, zürich prag, 1936
printer: genossenschaftsdruckerei zürich
size: 22 x 13 cm
designer: emil zbinden

"fahr zur hölle, jonny!" (go to hell, jonny!) is an autobiographical report by berlin-born jonny gerd rieger (1908-1985) about the 1920s when he was a hobo wandering around europe. later he wrote for the left-wing magazine "arbeiter illustrierte zeitung".

this first edition was published by the exiled büchergilde gutenberg in zurich.

the flashy black and yellow jacket and cover were designed by emil zbinden (1908-1991). in the same year, zbinden created the dust jackets for two traven first editions published by the büchergilde (see stories 9 and 10).

the typography of the inner pages was done by the büchergilde's founder bruno dressler (1879-1952) who had left germany in 1933 to become director of the independent swiss büchergilde.