Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1977 Bantam edition)
Contributed by Stephen Coles on Dec 6th, 2021. Artwork published in
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First published in 1976, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas is a memoir by American writer and poet Maya Angelou that spans her early twenties. This 1977 paperback edition uses Cooper Black Condensed, whose rounded serifs deflty handle the curved baseline of the rainbow, and ITC Bookman for the small text. Both typefaces are also used on the back cover.
Bantam followed this book with an edition of Gather Together in my Name using a similar (but mirrored) rainbow motif and brown-beige hues.
The designer of these bindings — presumably in-house at Bantam — is not credited, but they were obviously playing off the rainbow effect of the original Random House jacket.
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1 Comment on “Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1977 Bantam edition)”
I love it! Milton Glaser drew a similarly happy rainbow for his Mahalia Jackson concert poster from 1967, likewise with a mirrored counterpart: