edita kaye: the best book covers of all time
TRANSCRIPT
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf
Designed by Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf’s older sister, this book cover displays a
semi-abstracted image that can be seen as a
representation of the books intensity in the last few
pages.
Prejudices: A Selection
by H.L Mencken
American designer Paul Rand created this modern-looking
book cover, known to be influenced by Modernists
Kandinsky, Klee, and Miro. Booksellers loved Rand’s
jackets because they drew so much attention to potential
buyers and were unlike anything else on the shelves.
Psycho by Robert Bloch
Tony Palladino knew that limited means could create
maximum impact as he designed this spooky cover.
Alfred Hitchcock even purchased the rights to use the lettering from this jacket for his film, whose opening credit sequence would later
become famous.
The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet
Christoph Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
This beautifully detailed hard-covered jacket is one of many
German Insel Bücherei editions, known for their
delicate, consistent design that appealed to financially
modest customers. And keep your eyes peeled, because these small hardbacks are still being produced today!
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce
This pocketable, modern-looking paperback paved the way for Penguin’s notable tri-
band jacket design that occurred in the mid 1930’s, suggesting that anybody could afford good quality
literature.
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess
Perhaps one of the most recognizable book covers of
all time, David Pelham’s cover quickly became a classic.
The use of primary colors and bold contrasts was
revolutionary at the time, and disturbing given the content
of the book.
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran
Foer
You’ll recognize the hand-drawn scrawl of this jacket on a lot books published in today’s age, but not many
have been able to match the energy of this particular
cover designed by Jon Gray in 2003.
– Edita Kaye
Want to see some more amazing book covers?
Check out CNN's article on the world's greatest book covers here. Thank
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