GIBBS, Lewis. Lois in Love. London: J. M. Dent. 1837. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the striking dust jacket designed by Lucien Lowen. A terrific example, the publisher’s retained copy with ‘FILE’ stamp to front endpaper, publisher’s catalogue to rear. The cloth clean, bright and sharp, the topstain vivid, the binding tight and perhaps just a trifle rolled. The contents fine with ‘file copy’ punch-holed to contents page and following page, and again to five or six other pages. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net), just a trifle crimped at extremities but fine.
Lewis Gibbs was a pseudonym of Joseph Walter Cove, the pen-name derived from his wife’s name, Louie A. P. Gibbs, and certainly a factor in the title of this novel, the author’s seventh, all of which were published by Dent, whose Everyman Library series Cove was a repeat editor. The novel deals with the complex romantic relationship between a younger woman and an older man. Of other interest is the dust jacket, an unusual jacket design for its time by a curiously underappreciated émigré artist and graphic designer, Fritz Löwen (this his birth name; he changed his name to ‘Lucien Lowen’ when he fled Germany). Löwen was born into a prominent Jewish family in Austria and gained considerable success as a magazine and book illustrator, and also produced various poster designs. In late 1935, he fled Germany for London where he lived for the rest of his life. His experience and talent caught the eyes of the art directors of Dent and this novel was probably his second or third jacket commission after his move to England. He went on to make his name as a children’s book illustrator in the 40s and 50s, but his early commissions here are equally impressive.
GIBBS, Lewis. Lois in Love. London: J. M. Dent. 1837. 8vo. First edition. Publisher’s blue cloth lettered in gilt to the spine, in the striking dust jacket designed by Lucien Lowen. A terrific example, the publisher’s retained copy with ‘FILE’ stamp to front endpaper, publisher’s catalogue to rear. The cloth clean, bright and sharp, the topstain vivid, the binding tight and perhaps just a trifle rolled. The contents fine with ‘file copy’ punch-holed to contents page and following page, and again to five or six other pages. The dust jacket unclipped (7s 6d net), just a trifle crimped at extremities but fine.
Lewis Gibbs was a pseudonym of Joseph Walter Cove, the pen-name derived from his wife’s name, Louie A. P. Gibbs, and certainly a factor in the title of this novel, the author’s seventh, all of which were published by Dent, whose Everyman Library series Cove was a repeat editor. The novel deals with the complex romantic relationship between a younger woman and an older man. Of other interest is the dust jacket, an unusual jacket design for its time by a curiously underappreciated émigré artist and graphic designer, Fritz Löwen (this his birth name; he changed his name to ‘Lucien Lowen’ when he fled Germany). Löwen was born into a prominent Jewish family in Austria and gained considerable success as a magazine and book illustrator, and also produced various poster designs. In late 1935, he fled Germany for London where he lived for the rest of his life. His experience and talent caught the eyes of the art directors of Dent and this novel was probably his second or third jacket commission after his move to England. He went on to make his name as a children’s book illustrator in the 40s and 50s, but his early commissions here are equally impressive.
