Book Covers

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” –American proverb

This proverb was probably easy to follow prior to the 1900’s. In the 1820’s, book jackets were originally designed to protect cloth bound covers and were meant to be discarded. For the first couple of decades of the 20th century, book covers were frequently decorated with stamped floral or scroll designs. It was not until the 1920s that the modern book jacket became a staple of the publishing world. For more history on book jackets, plus photos of covers from 1920 through 1950’s visit Pictorial Covers:An Exhibition of American Book Jackets, 1920-1950.

Recently I ran across the blog of Henry Sene Yee who designs book covers. As today is the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings, I thought it might be an appropriate time to share the blog on how he came up with an suitable cover for the book, simply titled Columbine.

Although written in 2007, there is another interesting article at Esquire.com on how Chip Kidd, art director at Alfred A. Knopf, designed covers for Martin Amis, Cormac McCarthy and John Updike. There’s more on Chip Kidd’s cover art at Time.com.

Vanity Fair lists what they rank as the top 25 book covers.

A list of favorite covers of 2008 can be found at Book Design Review.

Have you ever bought a book based on the cover alone? Do you have a favorite book cover of all time?

Thanks for dropping by.

Tags: book covers, Columbine, Vanity Fair, Knopf,