Princess Bride Covers

As related to this post - The Princess Bride Review
I don’t know the exact origin of the cover on the left but best I can tell its the original 70’s mass market paperback edition. Click on the book cover above (from the 20th Anniversary edition), and you can see the old cover beside it. It’s pretty awful, I mean seriously, a half naked woman with strange magical animals/things coming out of her? Please, if anyone can explain the relevance, enlighten me!
On the right is the 20th anniversary cover. Huh, wonder why the changed it?














I bought it in a used bookstore long before the movie came out. Stupid title, lurid cover. Worked for me as a marketing ploy.
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crichoux reply on August 18th, 2008:
Hehe, Good to know it worked for someone! I wonder what the original hard cover cover looked like, cause this is definitely more of a paper back style cover.
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cover on the left is a true first edition softcover.. pretty rare and command quite a premium. The cover design is reminiscent of the adventure/fantasy stories illustrated by Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo. The cover must grab your attention or the product will not sell. This was the case during the very first printings and introduction to the masses back in 1973.
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I had a copy of the original paperback once, and kept it because it was so, I mean SO not Princess Bride, content-wise…where’s Jabba the Hut, I asked myself? But I really liked how all of his “Editor’s Notes” and Goldman’s “asides” were in RED font color, so it positively dripped drama! Gosh, I love this book any way it comes!
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crichoux reply on August 29th, 2009:
Its a great book.. it just hard to imagine anyone thinking “Oh, I wanna read that!” from that cover…. But its just a show of the times I guess.
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i’ve been trying to figure out who did the art for the cover on the right. anyone know? or know how i can find out? maybe i’m just not searching the right terms.
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Hey, I’d like to get another copy of the one on the left, for sentimental value, but I’m finding it hard to locate without the ISBN. Do you have one and can you post the number? Thanks.
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