The ART of John Dickson Carr's THE CROOKED HINGE

I BOUGHT this first edition of John Dickson Carr's The Crooked Hinge, minus its valuable dustjacket, forty-five years to the day after it was published by Harper & Brothers in 1938. I found it in Boulder, Colorado, inside a bookstore on Pearl Street named The Rue Morgue. The establishment was run by mystery enthusiasts Enid and Tom Schantz, who also republished books under their store's banner, including, many years later, this same title. I paid five dollars for it and have since read it three times. It may be the best five bucks I ever spent on a hardcover novel.

Rue Morgue changed owners in 2000 and became High Crimes. Then, in yet another sign of America's ever changing culture (some would say diminishing), the brick and mortar portion of the store closed in 2008. It's strictly an online business now, though notably one that specializes in signed first editions.

This is the Harper & Brothers dustjacket that I didn't get with my hardcover edition. Someday I hope to complete my purchase aesthetically by obtaining a facsimile jacket from dustjackets.com. They ship for a mere $26.  

 

The jacket art was produced by Leo Manso (1914-1993), who studied at the Educational Alliance in New York in 1929 and at the New School for Social Research. During the war years he was art director at the World Publishing Company, which published both Tower Books and Forum Books. He also provided cover art for most of the major hardcover publishers as well as for Pocket Books and other paperback houses. Later in his life he began teaching at the Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art, Columbia University, and New York University, while also producing fine art on the side.

Some of Leo Manso's paintings, of which he formulated many pieces, are best described as being "abstract impressionism," influenced, according to him, by the natural air, light, color and space of the outdoor world.

Here's the PLOT SYNOPSIS of The Crooked Hinge, as described on the Harper edition jacket flap:

"Two men claim the same name and the same estate. Each of the two claims that he is Sir John Farnleigh, heir to the richest baronetcy in Kent, who hasn't been seen at his old home for twenty-five years. Each of the two men declares that the other is an imposter---and each has proof of it. Each tells a different but equally convincing story.

Who is the real Sir John, and who is the pretender? His old friend and tutor, Kenneth Murray, has the answer in the form of fingerprints, taken when Sir John was a boy. A logical candidate for murder, one would say. Yet when death strikes, the victim is not Murray, but---

This is the opening gambit of THE CROOKED HINGE. What the crooked hinge is, and in what way it contains the secret of the situation, is one of the puzzles to be solved by Dr. Fell. Another is the problem of the mechanical automaton, the secret of whose operation has been lost since the 18th century. What happens when it begins to move again provides the climax of the mystery---a mystery whose solution comes as the most amazing upset of Dr. Fell's career."

Harper's introduction, while well stated and straight-forward, doesn't quite do justice to the brilliant obfuscation and misdirection that will greet readers of Carr's novel, nor does it highlight the macabre, supernatural sub-theme that's so skillfully woven into the story's fabric. Also, Carr's forte, the sub-genre known as the "impossible crime," is barely addressed even though the crimes he has concocted, while seemingly impossible if not implausible, are some of the most unusual and diabolical ever conceived. I guess too much information in an introduction would be just too much, and could constitute a spoiler.

HERE'S a few of the other covers that have promoted Carr's novel:

Joseph Abbey, the brother of artist Solomon Abbey, produced the dustjacket art depicting Dr. Fell for the 1938 United Kingdom hardcover edition, which was published by Hamish Hamilton of London. Both Abbey's became extremely prolific book cover illustrators during their commercial art careers.

Note: this jacket can also be purchased from dustjackets.com. The synopsis on the flap is the same as the Harper edition.

Popular Library published the first paperback edition of The Crooked Hinge in 1944. H. Lawrence Hoffman (1911-1977) designed the cover art on this, Popular's 19th title overall. Hoffman also designed, or co-designed with his studio partner Sol Immerman, another 124 covers for Popular before moving on to do work for other publishers, including companies that published hardcovers (hmm, Hoffman's "Hag" doesn't look all that hideous to me. More like a German doll one might find featured on PBS's Antiques Roadshow. Ha!).

 

"Murder, witchcraft, magic and the hideous Golden Hag, a mechanical automaton which begins to move again after centuries of inaction, form the basis of this breathless and exciting mystery starring Dr. Gideon Fell, philosophical sleuth."

"THE CROOKED HINGE is the tightest puzzle that Dr. Fell thus far has unlocked; and he does it in the most goose-fleshing atmosphere that John Dickson Carr has thus far provided for him..."  --- Cleveland Press.

Carr's novel was the featured fiction entry in 1948 Summer edition of Detective Mystery Novel Magazine. The cover art, which highlighted a supernatural aspect within the plot--specifically a witch's coven--was produced by Rudolph Belarski, one of Pulpdom's most prolific and best known illustrators.

"When one of the two Lord Farnleighs is mysteriously murdered, Dr. Gideon Fell leaves his London lodgings for a Kentish hamlet to probe the odd case--which presents so many strange angles that only witchcraft seems to offer the true solution!

The cover of 1949 French edition from La Matrise du Livre gives us a glimpse of the automaton performing her heinous act. This "Hag" isn't necessarily hideous, but it sure is creepy. In English the title reads, The Sinking of the Titanic. I'm not so sure Carr would've approved of that title change.

 

Dell published their paperback edition in 1955. Their cover art was produced by William George (1930-2017), an outstanding Norman Rockwell trained painter who began his career doing covers for Zane Grey's Western Magazine in 1952, and then produced approximately 38 covers for Dell during the rest of the 1950's before moving on to Pocket and Bantam. He is noted for his many western paperback covers as well as for his imaginative, colorful, and very collectible Masters of the Universe paintings, but it is his mystery-crime covers, like the one here, that I cherish the most.

"It seems a little like getting olives out of a bottle," said Dr. Gideon Fell. "You have infinite trouble with the first one; the rest roll out all over the table."
   The brilliant criminologist was speaking of murder. The killer takes infinite pains with his original crime. Then, when circumstances turn against him, he is often forced to kill again--in panic and haste.
    But one does not solve murder by calmly waiting for other ones--even when one is sure that, the first time, the wrong man was killed."

George's "Hag", although shrouded in shadow, does have the appearance of being hideous by having a broken eye socket, but you can also see that perhaps when she was newly minted she may have been beautiful.

Lou Kimmel (1905-1973) produced the cover art on 1958 Berkley Books paperback edition. Kimmel specialized in genre subjects and figures, and I consider him to be one of the finest illustrators of his generation.

 

Emanuel Schongut (1936- ) produced the cover art on Collier's 1969 paperback edition. Schongut, who studied at the Pratt Institute in New York, produced dozens of imaginative science fiction covers for Doubleday during the 1970's, as well as a diverse selection of paperback covers, before moving on to do Children's books. He is also noted for his exceptional poster work promoting PBS's Masterpiece and Mystery Theater during the 1990's.

"Which man is the real John *Farleigh?  A young man named John Farleigh is rescued from the sinking Titanic and continues on his way to America. Twenty-five years later he inherits a large estate in England and returns there to live. Another man appears who says he is the real John Farleigh--that as a boy he had also been taken off the doomed ship. Then one of the claimants is found with his throat cut, and it is up to Dr. Gideon Fell to find the answers to baffling questions: Was the death suicide or murder? If murder, who is the killer and why? And which of the two is in fact John Farleigh? Dr. Fell's solution is one of his masterpieces of logical reconstruction."  

*Note: Farnleigh is misspelled as Farleigh on the back cover blurb synopsis.

Paul Clark Tankersley produced the cover art on this 1988 Avenel Books hardcover omnibus edition, which reprinted four Dr. Fell's mysteries, including The Crooked Hinge. He also produced about a dozen other Carr paperback covers for Zebra during an impressive 1980's run of John Dickson Carr reprints (these included reprints published under Carr's pseudonym Carter Dickson).

"Life is close to idyllic for Sir John Farnleigh and his new bride on their country estate until Patrick Gore turns up one day to claim the title and estate for his own. The Crooked Hinge is a dark drama of confused identities and bizarre practices in which Dr. Fell reveals nerves of steel and more than just a passing knowledge of witchcraft."

 

 

Rob Pudim is a self employed editorial cartoonist and writer, who occasionally produces book covers, like the one here, for Rue Morgue's 2008 trade softcover reprint.

"Twenty-five years ago John Farnleigh, the heir to the baronetcy of Mallingford and Sloane, then a young and wild boy exiled to America, survived the sinking of the Titanic. It's now 1937, two years after he returned to England to claim his inheritance. Only is he really the heir? Another man has just shown up also claiming to be John Farnleigh, explaining that, as boys, the two men switched identities as the ship was sinking. The key to solving the mystery lies with an old set of fingerprints taken by young Farnleigh's tutor. But before the two men's fingerprints can be compared one member of the household has his throat cut in plain sight by an unseen hand. Everyone is pretty certain the crime isn't the work of a ghost. Odder yet, the victim is the last person one would expect to be murdered. Fortunately, Dr. Gideon Fell, an amateur sleuth with a knack for solving impossible crimes, happens to be staying at the local pub."

Penzler Press published this trade softcover reprint of The Crooked Hinge in October 2019. Their cover image, a throwback to the first Hamish Hamilton edition, was conceived by Andy Ross and designed by Mauricio Diaz.

"Banished from the idyllic English countryside he once called home and en route to live with his cousin in America, Sir John Farnleigh, black sheep of the wealthy Farnleigh clan, nearly perished in the sinking of the Titanic. Though he survived the catastrophe, his ties with his family did not, and he never returned to England--not even for the funerals of his mother, his father, or, most recently, his older brother Dudley. Now nearly twenty-five years since he was first sent away, Sir John has finally returned home to claim his inheritance. But another "Sir John" soon follows, a stranger who insists he has absolute proof of his claim to the estate. Before the case can be settled, however, one of the two men is murdered, and Dr. Gideon Fell finds himself facing one of the most challenging cases of his career. To solve it, he'll have to confront a series of bizarre and chilling phenomena, brushing up against witchcraft, magic, and a sinister automaton in the process."

John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) wrote dozens of short stories, at least one non-fiction book, and over seventy novels, mostly mysteries, thrillers and historicals, and while not every one is completely brilliant like The Crooked Hinge (no writer can be that consistent!), enough are, and those accomplishments should keep readers eagerly turning pages for generations to come. 

[© June, 2020, Jeffersen]