Book covers, C.J. Cherryh's face

>Date: Wed, 2 Jun 93 21:40:47 +0200
>From: arg@prosun.first.gmd.de (Arnulf Guenther)
>Subject: C. J. Cherryh List

Funny. Today I saw the german translation of _Heavy Time_ in the book shops. The cover illustration is almost the same as of the collection _Visible Light_ of DAW books. Only difference is that a man facing the woman at the porthole is added. Given the fact that this is a illustration by David A. Cherry and the frame story in _VL_ I presume this woman depicts C.J. Cherryh herself. There's a intricate C in her belt buckle. On the backside is a droid holding a pot plant; a reference to the story "Companions".

-Arnulf

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>Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 11:56:22 +0200
>From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
>Subject: cherryhlist

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From Arnulf Guenther:
>Given the fact that this is a
>illustration by David A. Cherry and the frame story in _VL_ I presume
>this woman depicts C.J. Cherryh herself.

From the photos I have seen, it's a pretty close resemblance.

	Markus

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>Date: Thu, 3 Jun 93 06:38:04 -0500
>From: bjgaed@ccmail.monsanto.com
>Subject: Re: cherryhlist 6/3 followup

>Funny.  Today I saw the german translation of _Heavy Time_ in the book
>shops.  The cover illustration is almost the same as of the collection
>_Visible Light_ of DAW books.  Only difference is that a man facing
>the woman at the porthole is added.  Given the fact that this is a
>illustration by David A. Cherry and the frame story in _VL_ I presume
>this woman depicts C.J. Cherryh herself. (...)

In a book of David Cherry's artwork the cover of _VL_ was reproduced. In his commentary the artist stated that it was indeed a portrait of his sister, Carolyn.

Interesting that the publisher would use a "recycled" cover. Any speculation on why? I had never thought of it, but I suppose that the rights to the text and the rights to the cover sell separately.

It was the cover of _VL_ that got me to read my first CJC book. This cover is *very* different from most sf covers. I remember thinking, "Who is this woman and why is she smiling like that?" I think it illustrates very well one of the unique and attractive aspects of CJC's future universes: A clear view of the mundane, day-to-day life in a starfaring society.

Bruce Gaede

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>Date: Fri, 4 Jun 93 12:19:53 +0200
>From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
>Subject: cherryhlist

Bruce Gaede writes:

>Interesting that the publisher would use a "recycled" cover.  Any speculation 
>on why?

It's not really recycled, since this was the first time the cover was used in a german-language book, which is a domain that is probably 99% disjunct in terms of readers. I don't know if there ever was a german edition of VL.

I would assume that the publisher buys a copyright for the cover in the country where the book is officially distributed, and the artist is still free to sell it abroad. It could also be that the publisher arranges for licensing of the cover when the translation is licensed, but that would contradict the observation that often (as is the case here) the covers turn up on translations of different books than the original. Actually, it would not have suprised me if it had been used on a non-Cherryh book.

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	Markus

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>From: Onno Meyer <Onno.Meyer@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de>
>Subject: cherryhlist
>Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1993 13:21:59 +0200 (MET DST)

> Interesting that the publisher would use a "recycled" cover.  Any speculation

I've found the cover of _DS_ as the cover of the german translation of some Larry Niven stories. Never noticed the name on the space station until I read _DS_.

	Onno