Friday, April 23, 2010

Face off

A reader (thanks A) has sent in the cover of the new Bill Pearson biography that uses what looks like Luke Wood’s McCahon typeface. Back in 1963 McCahon made the painting that was used for the cover for Pearson’s own book Coal Flat, although McCahon’s own McCahon typeface was serif and somewhat less elegant than the Pearson biography version. In the Journal of New Zealand Literature Paul Millar, the author of the biography, recalls the McCahon painting hanging in Pearson’s Wellington home next to a painted portrait, this one of Pearson’s father decked out in full Masonic regalia.
Images: The Pearson biography and the two versions of McCahon’s design for the cover of Coal Flat in 1963 (left) and 1976 (right)