I love discovering design doppelgängers from the Cold War and this week we feature a pair of book covers from the late 1950s and early 1960s. Featuring the Saint by Leslie Charteris was published by Avon (Avon #803) in 1958, although it's noteworthy that my copy does not include the year or illustration credits. The use of an open silhouette figure over a color background was popular at the time and continued through the early 1960s as a typical design approach to mysteries and thrillers (see our post: Rare Fleming). The book contained short stories originally published in The Thriller magazine and were first compiled by Hodder and Stoughton in 1931. Two of the stories were adapted for The Saint TV series with Roger Moore in 1964 and 1965. The cover design then resurfaced on the front of a book by French publisher Presses de la Citein 1961 for their edition of Un Dur de la Feuille by Roger Henri Nova (also known as Roger Faller, Roger Menanteau, Henri Grival- he had many aliases!). One the writer's novels inspired the 1966 film, Plainte centre X. Although I can imagine most genre stories could have been packaged with this coupling of an anonymous hero with pistol and the fallen female character, we can only wonder if the dark silhouette in the middle ground with bowler and mustache resonated with readers on both sides of the Atlantic. Often times designs were recycled, but recreated by other artists. In this case, the foundation images were exactly the same. There is a slight variation in the background color gradients, but that may be a result of the photographs. Intriguing! See some of Spy Vibe's Design Doppelgängers and related cover designs here: Rare Fleming, Double 007 Design, Double 007 Design II, Design Doppelgängers. Learn more about The Saint. Enjoy!
