Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. My introduction to J G Ballard’s fiction came via these eye-catching covers by artist David Pelham.

Pelham was best known for his iconic designs for the Penguin paperback editions of Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. In 1974, he produced these images for a Penguin box set of four J. G. Ballard books (three novels, one collection of short stories) - The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Drought and The Terminal Beach. Pelham’s designs perfectly captured the essence of Ballard’s fictions.
 

 

 

 

The 4 books originally came in Pelham’s beautifully designed slipcase, and in 1977, Pelham produced this cover for Ballard’s story collection Four Dimensional Nightmare.

See the best of Penguin Science Fiction covers here.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Books by Their Covers: Oliver Bevan’s Fabulous Op-Art Designs for Fontana Modern Masters