Author's Nightmare: Two publishers choose the same cover for different books

This is the cover for Jonathan Zimmerman's new book about the history of the little red schoolhouse (Yale University Press, July 2009):

And this is the cover for Mike Rose's new book about the meaning of education (New Press, September 2009):

Professor Zimmerman told HNN he was aware that Mike Rose was working on a book on education, but"I had no idea that it would have the same cover as my own!"

Mike Rose told us in an email:

About three weeks ago, I got an email from an editor I know who had gotten an advanced copy of my book and who already had a copy of Jonathan's. You can imagine what went through my mind, some of which is not printable here. I sent panicked notes to my publisher, but it turned out that they had already printed the cover, and didn't have the resources or time to change course. I apologize to Jonathan, and I hope that both of our books do well.