The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (Bantam)
The cover of the 1970 Bantam Books edition of Simone de Beauvoir’s groundbreaking work. Title and author are set in Bookman Swash: a clear favourite of the graphic design agencies of the era. The promo copy including summary and blurb are in a different, plainer variant of Bookman Italic.
Swashes abound, drop, clash, and in one case a ball terminal of the swash n in Simone plays the part of the dot in the i of Beauvoir.
2 Comments on “The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (Bantam)”
Thank you, David! The title is definitely set in a Bookman Italic with swashes. It’s not the Bookman Swash Bold Italic as carried by Typeshop, Letraset and others – simply because it’s not bold, and also because some swash forms including for r and x can’t quite match. I don’t pinpoint this specific version – it’s not Bookman Light Italic Agency by Castcraft, and apparently not neo-Bookman Light Italic by Headlines either. It might be Photo-Lettering’s Bookman Italic Swash Series B, but I don’t have a full sample to compare against. I’ll leave the typeface credit as is, because Bookman Bold Swash is still the closest option.
The smaller text is set in a different Bookman Italic. Not only is it swashless, it also has wider proportions and smaller apertures, compare a or e. That’s why I’ve added standard Bookman to the typeface list as well. The horizontally compact f suggests that this font is (a phototype adaptation of) a version for machine typesetting. It’s not Linotype’s, though – that one has a g with the ear to the right.
We recently restructured our record of the Bookmans: the entry formerly known as Bookman Bold Swash is now called Bookman Swash, to acknowledge the fact that some type providers offered additional weights of the same design.
We also added a couple of entries for photo-era Bookmans that previously didn’t have one. This is includes PLINC Bookman Swash, a collective entry for a number of semi-related styles by Photo-Lettering. On second look, I still think the style on the cover could be their Bookman Italic Swash – which is one of those styles. The time and place would be a match, too. I’ve adjusted the ID.