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book (design) story #61

vicki baum:
kautschuk

büchergilde gutenberg, zürich, 1947
printer: buchdruckerei volksstimme, st. gallen
size: 21 x 13 cm
designer: richard paul lohse

austrian-born vicki (hedwig) baum (1988-1960) was a very popular novellist. when in 1931 mgm decided to make one of her books into the film "grand hotel" (starring greta garbo, joan crawford), vicky baum and her family left for hollywood. the jewish writer preferred not to return to germany, and her books were soon banned by the nazis. in 1943 her book "the weeping wood" came out in english, the first german edition was published by bermann-fischer, stockholm in 1945. this is a later edition by the büchergilde gutenberg, zürich.

from the late 1930s to the early 1950s, richard paul lohse (1902-1988) designed many büchergilde zürich books. for some he was in charge of all design aspects, for others he only designed the jacket and/or the cover, sometimes the title spread, too. this book seems to be one of these, since the typography of the inner pages is rather conventional.

the dustjacket design is again typical for lohse's "constructive" style (story 2 shows a similar example): a cascading series of rectangular elements with "kautschuk" (caotchouk) printed on them – suggesting the role of rubber in industrial (serial) production.

the cover and title spread are variations of the jacket design. but inside the book, the sans-serif is replaced by a didone typeface (bodoni).