M. C. Escher Miscellany

This page posts what I term as ‘M. C. Escher Miscellany’, of various aspects of Escher, mostly of a brief nature, with a general theme of new or rarely published material. Simply stated, due to the short length of the material, none can justify a dedicated page, hence the assembly under the above title.  Some aspects remain unresolved, and some, due to their obscure nature, are likely to remain so, but hope springs eternal, and if any reader has further details, no matter how small or insignificant, I would be delighted to hear.

1. Escher's birth certificate

2. Use of M. C. Escher’s Sky and Water in an advertisement, by Thorp, Reed & Armstrong, attorneys at law.

3. Books featuring Escher's work on the cover

Of curiosity is instances of Escher's work appearing on book covers that excludes all instances of obvious ‘self reference’ (e.g. Visions of Symmetry), where these would appear by default. The list below, detailing the author, book/article and print/drawing used contains all the instances I know of ‘outside instances’. Have you seen any others? I’d certainly like to hear of other instances. Email me.

Abbott. Edwin A. Flatland. Penguin Classic. (Three Spheres)

Baum, Joel A.C. (ed.) Companion to Organization. John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2005. (Lizards, PD118)

Brown, Richard G. Transformation Geometry. Dale Seymour Publications 1973. (Swans, PD 96)

Disch, Thomas M. New Worlds Speculative fiction (Relativity)July 1967 (Locher cat. 389)

Erdrich, Louise. The Plague of Doves (Sky and Water II-like) Harper, 2008

Gamma, Eric. et al.Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-oriented software (also see CD, which has a different cover) (Swans, PD 96)

Gombrich, E. H. Meditations on a Hobby Horse. Phaidon Press, 1995 (Horseman, PD67)

Gorman, Peter.Ayahuasca In my Blood: 25 years of Medical Dreaming 2011 Lulu (Snakes)

Hall, Pamela.Heads You Lose. Hawthorn Books, 1971. (Plane Filling I) (Locher. cat 373)

Hamish Hamilton, 1978 Drawing Hands (Locher cat. 355)

Hitching, Francis. The World Atlas of Mysteries. (Stars) Locher cat. 359

Horton, Patrick A. Mastering the Power of Story (Drawing Hands) (Locher cat. 355)

Jackson, Finn. The Escher Cycle (Ascending and Descending) Is this a ‘true’ book?

Langton, Jane. The Escher Twist: A Homer Kelly Mystery Viking Adult, 2002. (Puddle) (Locher 378) N.B. A different cover has two of Escher's knots

Markman, Arthur B. Knowledge Representation. Taylor and Francis, 1998. (Reptiles PD25)

Nelson, David et al. Multicultural Mathematics. Teaching Mathematics from a Global Perspective.OxfordUniversityPress 1993. (Swans, PD96)

Peterson, Ivars.Fragments of Infinity? (Mobius Strip I)(Locher 437)

Rorvik, David M. In His Image: The Cloning of a Man.Lipponcott, 1978 (Drawing Hands)

Sterman, G. et al. Symmetry And Modern Physics: Yang Retirement Symposium. State University of New York, Stony Brook 21-22 May 1999 – (part of Metamorphosis I)

Wilhelm, Kate. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (Day and Night)

Woulters J. B. Leerboek Der Goniiometrie. Van Thijs Wiskundige Leergang

Yang, C. N. Elemental Particles 1962 (Horseman, PD67)

4. Coins
Portion of Day and Night on a ECU coin

5. Correspondence with Terrence Kuch
Terrence Kuch and Escher correspondence. All letters copyright Terrence Kuch

 6. Cartoon in The New Yorker, Glass Pattern 

   7. Escher 'Horseman' tiling on a car

8. Façade of a building at 14 Calle del Conde de Romanones, Madrid

9. Waterzuiveringsbedrijf Den Haag, Houtrustweg

Page History. 5 January 2026. Upgrade from Classic Sites. The conversion preserved the main structure, albeit with 'free-floating' captions, which I now reattach. The page was noticeably lightweight, to the detriment of each entry. Generally, all that was given was a title and caption. A much deeper treatment should have been given. In my defence, perhaps this was intended to be a lightweight study in nature, judging by the (limited) introductory text. The page has dated somewhat, especially with '3. Books featuring Escher's work on the cover'. This likely predated the much more expansive 'M. C. Escher - Cover Art Books' page. I will likely delete this here in a later review.
I corrected basic errors in the text with Grammarly, pending a more in-depth review. 

Revised 9 May 2014