PAN published several of the works of 1946 Nobel Prize for Literature winning author Hermann Hesse (1877 to 1962) “for his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of style” Most of the PAN covers were painted by Peter Le Vasseur apart from one by George Sharp and a photo by Peter Williams. I contacted Peter who kindly emailed back to say:
“Hi Tim, I started doing book covers when a friend asked me to do one in the 60’s.After that I did covers for a number of companies through and agent in Soho, the company was called Artist’s Partners. I came in contact with Pan through AP in the 1970’s. I did covers for their imprint Picador because they did more arty/poetic books, hence doing the covers for Hermann Hesse’s books. Hermann Hesse’s work was going through a bit of a revival at that time. Picador were very good in that they gave me a huge amount of freedom to interpret the author’s work. All the original art work was sold, most of it through the Portal Gallery, who showed my work around that time. Others sold in Guernsey where I live. One or two of the images are in the book about me, which was published by Lutterworth Press a couple of years ago. It’s called ‘A Brush with Life’ and was written by Jason Monaghan. I hope that helps a bit, come back to me if you need anything more and i will see if I can help”
I have a copy of Peter’s book which is a very informative read and features the art work for three of his Picador covers and lists others but misses out ‘Rosshalde’. Peter also painted the cover for the Picador 1980 edition of ‘The Track to Bragula’ by B. Wonger
The second Nobel Prize for Literature author is Knut Hamsun (1859 to 1952) who won his in 1920. 
Again PAN published several of his titles with most of the covers by Paul Leith although oddly again one of them is by George Sharp plus another by Bee Willey. I have emailed Paul but so far no reply. His website states “Paul Leith is a British illustrator, artist and graduate from The Royal College of Art. Paul’s work covers decades of colourful creativity; producing murals, felt artworks, sketches and commercial illustration. His experience is reflected in his high profile client list which includes Royal Mail, Penguin Books, The Sunday Times, The Body Shop, W H Smiths and Virgin Trains to name a few. Paul is currently working on a variety of creative projects and is based in Carlisle, Cumbria”
This might just be me but sometimes I look at a cover and go ‘What the …..?’ I am now offering the Picador edition of ‘Waterland’ by Graham Swift from 1984 as my ‘What the ……?’ of this week.
