The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [310]
As for the male figure, who appears to be the illegitimate offspring of Pinocchio and Bob Hope…
I’m happy to report that the stepback disappeared in the next print run, leaving the book with simply the outer cover.
When Outlander was re-covered, both Dragonfly and Voyager were redone to match, with the original design preserved, but with solid bands across top and bottom for name and title.
Voyager
(hardcover)
ISBN 0-385-30232-0
For this one, the publisher actually asked me what I’d like to see on the cover. Always ready, I promptly replied, “A ship and an ocean.” I was very pleased with the result—though the initial design featured a pile of roses on the map in the foreground. I said I thought this rather unlikely, on an eighteenth-century sailing ship, and the roses were obligingly replaced—though with a tasteful thistle, rather than the jeweled dagger I suggested.
Voyager
(paperback)
ISBN 0-440-21756-3
Again, the original cover is an adaptation of the hardcover. This time, I succeeded in preventing any attempts to depict literal characters from the book, and while there was a stepback cover for the first printing, it shows only tumbling ocean waves, with review quotes superimposed; a vast improvement. This cover was “refreshed” to match the others, with solid bands top and bottom replacing the original Celtic-themed lettering for title and author name (and covering up the thistle), but the general design was kept intact.
Drums of Autumn
(hardcover)
ISBN 0-385-31140-0
By this time, I trusted the artist implicitly, so merely suggested some sort of outdoor scene, preferably with the “feel” of an eighteenth-century landscape—and sent along a bundle of photocopies of “possible objects,” as well as a few samples of paintings that I thought had the correct atmosphere.
This was a very successful cover; in fact, so successful that the Swedish publisher used it intact, and the German publisher used a variant of it.
Drums of Autumn
(paperback)
ISBN 0-440-22325-X
The cover design is an adaptation of the hardcover, with bands top and bottom. The stepback in the first printing shows a tartan background, with review quotes superimposed.
CANADA
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
105 Bond Street Toronto, ON M5B 1Y3
Since Doubleday Canada belongs to the same parent company as does the U.S. publisher, there is no separate Canadian edition, per se. Doubleday Canada handles distribution of books within Canada, but uses the same edition (same content, cover, ISBNs, etc.) as the United States.
NB: French translation editions of the books are distributed within Quebec by an affiliate of the French publisher.
FRANCE
Publisher: Les Presses la Cité”
12, Avenue d’Italie 75013 Paris
NB: French editions are distributed in Quebec by an associate of the French publisher, rather than by Doubleday Canada, who handles the English editions in that country.
All French titles are published as trade paperback editions rather than hardcover and/or mass market paperback.
Le Chardon et le Tartan
(Outlander)
ISBN 2-258-03984-3
This literally translates to “The Thistle and the Tartan.” It’s bright blue and pink, with a castle in the background and flowering plants in the foreground. It doesn’t quite look Scottish (possibly owing to the fact that the plants look like azaleas), and the overall tone is pretty gooey, but it does look vaguely historical.
Le Talisman (Dragonfly in Amber) ISBN 2-258-03985-1
A talisman is something like a good-luck charm, and one French reader translated the title as “The Lucky Charm.” Personally, I wouldn’t have thought that’s what the dragonfly in amber was, but mine is not to reason why. Possibly “dragonfly” means something obscene in French.
It’s a very interesting-looking cover, though it looks more like the novelization of a PBS production of a Henry James novel
than anything Scottish. Very French, though. Gray and brown tones, with a street scene, featuring