Dancing on the Grave of a Son of a Bitch by Diane Wakoski (Black Sparrow Press, 1973 edition)
Cover of the original hardcover edition
The cover of the 1973 edition of Diane Wakoski’s Dancing on the Grave of a Son of a Bitch uses Salem, set stacked and staggered, with the author’s name separated from the title by a row of floral ornaments.
Salem was introduced by the Keystone Type Foundry in Philadelphia in 1901 and advertised as “a witchey typeface” (cf. the Salem witch trials). It came accompanied by topical ornaments.
Design by Barbara Martin. The letterpress work was done by Noel Young, who started as a printer (including tons of work for Black Sparrow Press) and then founded Capra Press.
See also the contribution by Joshua Bodwell about the 2022 edition of the same name, which is actually a different book (with some overlap).
Zangezi is a contemporary reinterpretation of Salem, started by Daria Cohen in 2018. This animation shows the book title in Salem compared to a resetting in Zangezi’s Regular style. Zangezi is less bold and a good deal narrower than the original. See also the different treatment of details like the counter in D or the terminal of r.
Incidentally, if you plan to dance on a grave typographically, you can do so for free: Daria’s EULA waves the licensing fee for any designs related to death.
“Deluxe Issue, one of five copies specially bound and designated for author, publisher, and a few individuals within the inner circle of the press, this one marked ‘Binder’s Copy’ and is signed by the author on the colophon.” This copy is for sale from Captain Ahab’s Rare Books.
The title page has the book’s title set in all caps, printed in two colors. The secondary typeface is Bulmer. In the second printing from 1974, the title page is printed in black.
The colophon is set in Monotype Bodoni’s italics.
