The Illustrated Dust Jacket, 1920-1970

by Martin Salisbury

In the modern era, the “beautiful book,” an art object in its own right, has become the key to the ongoing attraction of print publishing as physical books continue to distinguish themselves from the screen.

Author Martin Salisbury traces the evolution of the book jacket from its functional origins as a plain dust protector for expensively bound books to its elaboration as an artistic device to catch the eye of browsing book buyers. The increasing awareness of the jacket’s potential to serve as a marketing tool across various areas of the publishing world—from literary fiction to academic titles, and children’s books—meant a proliferation of illustrative treatments. The book jackets reproduced here reflect the changing visual styles and motifs of the passing century, beginning with the Art Deco period and continuing through Modernism, the playful Thirties, the pre- and postwar Neo-Romantics, the new consumerism and realist subject matter of the Fifties, and the Pop Art of the Sixties.

Featuring talent from the US and UK, Cover Up: The Illustrated Book Jacket explores the pictorial dust jacket through a selection of more than 300 key works and artists that influenced the course of book jacket design.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Art, Reference, Design, History, Art Design

200 pages, Hardcover

First published November 21, 2017

About the author

Martin studied illustration at Maidstone College of Art (now part of the University of the Creative Arts) in the 1970s. He has worked as an illustrator and painter ever since. In recent years his work has focused mainly on the area of children’s book illustration, painting for exhibition and writing on the subject of drawing and illustration.

Martin regularly contributes to Artists & Illustrators magazine, Books for Keeps and the Journal of the Association of Illustrators. Along with colleague Wendy Coates-Smith he founded the graphic arts journal, Line which has been internationally acclaimed as an important contribution to research into illustration and drawing.

In 2004, Martin wrote Illustrating Children’s Books, a major guide to the practice and theory of the art form published by A&C Black in the UK. In 2007, Martin Salisbury was a member of the judging panel for the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award in Italy. The following year he joined the international jury for the CJ Picture Book Awards in Seoul.

Martin currently acts as External Examiner (BA Hons Illustration) at the University of Westminster and Southampton Solent University.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

After an introduction to the dust jacket, this book shows a collection of illustrators with two to four pages on each. I preferred this format to the last book which was a chronological look at the dust jacket. There are lots of illustrations, some full page, this is a treat to look through, I will be sad when it goes back to the library this really is a book I could look through again and again!

There were lots of my personal favourites, Tove Jansson, Harold Jones, Edward Bawden, Edward Ardizzone, Roger Duvoisin, John Nash and many more. There were some I was surprised that were not included but that is often the way with compilations.

Highly recommended to those who love dust jacket art.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just bought this today and worth every penny. Beautiful to look at and the associated writing is informative...
You know what? I think I shall read it now.

UPDATE

Took a week to read this as every time I came across a book by one of my favourite artists I had to go looking for a copy.

This is filled with some of the most beautiful book covers from 1920 to 1970 and with enough titles to last for some time.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book - and one that surprised me on several occasions not least of which was the size of it - considering the book celebrates book covers (well that is a surprise) but the fact that the books referred to as a fraction of the size of the book.

Also the book is true to for celebrating the covers - regardless of the contents and subject. Yes there are many famous titles and authors showcased but there are also many lesser know ones (after all the first image in the book you are met by is about JAM!, but its no less impressive).

So what about the book - well it is broken up in to many sections each approaching the covers in a different manner, from era to author and to even style. There are also extensive notes at the end of the book I suspect I will be referring back to many times over.

But what I love about this book the most is the sense of nostalgia. When I was starting out reading there were not many books for me to read from, so I raided my parents books and so many of them share the look and feel of those books from here.

This book is a wonderful celebration of book covers and dust jackets. However like so many books of this type I wish there were more titles covered and more material - I hope however was involved in the creation of this book that they see this and consider making another volume of it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was on display in the library, and I took one look and grabbed it! What an amazing and beautiful book. I think this book was inspired by the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in any case, the author's bio says he's both a designer and teacher, and has written many books on illustration. Impossible to praise this book highly enough, and thanks to author and publisher Thames & Hudson for doing such a great job: 371 illustrations, in color, of the most gorgeous variety of book jackets, with all sorts of fascinating information about the styles of different eras, and the artists, and such remarkable artists! I've already been through it several times, but it's going to be hard to give it back to the library, it is such a pleasure just to turn the pages and take in all this beautiful work.

I guess it is my reward for constantly haunting my local library to come across such a treasure. In any case, many thanks to the librarians of Worthington, Ohio, for their excellent taste!

[Mai M Ibrahim · Rating 5 out of 5]

جميل اوي 😍
تصميم أغلفة الكتب حلوة
هصور صفحات منه وهنزلها ستوري ع انستجرام
@mai.designer92
وهتكلم ف حلقة ع قناة جرافيميديا ع اليوتيوب عن أغلفة الكتب قريبًا 😍👇
@graphimedia.workshops

[David Cordero · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great coffee table volume of some of the best dust jacket artists.

[Tom Bentley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is expertly designed, and has page after page of reproductions of book jackets of every genre. Some of the illustrators are household names (Edward Gorey), as are many of the authors. But others—author and illustrator—are probably only known to other book illustrators and people interested in the history of graphic design. Some of the images are fabulous, mingled with eccentric and clever hand-lettering and whimsical figures. Others are dark and sinister, others spare. The images are accompanied by capsule biographies of the illustrator's lives, as well as some sprinklings of author information and book content.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book profiling the illustrators of book covers and their work. Another addition to my collection on publishing history.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating!

[Yellowoasis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, rich exploration of some of the best dust jacket designers of the 20th Century. A feast for the eyes and incredibly informative.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dangerous addition to any collection as it will inspire book lust. Beautifully illustrated with multiple examples for each artist discussed.

[Jenny Ocana-Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful catalogue of the different eras of dust jacket design. Overall just really beautiful and fun to look at but the artist biographies were also insightful.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sumptuous look at major dust jacket artists of the 20th century

My review: http://perfectretort.blogspot.com/202...

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't realized the focus would be so much on British publishing, but it is entertaining enough to page through and look at some of the captions and admire the many wonderful photographs of book dust jackets. This is a beautiful book.

I was pleased my public library purchased it so I could borrow it for a while.

In the introduction, the author states that the Library of Congress has a significant collection of dust jackets. This is not, in fact, correct. An odd error.

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband picked this book up for me the other day because he said it had my name written all over it. This just goes to show that (a) he knows me (at least a little bit) and (b) he does love me (actually quite a lot).

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is essentially a catalogue of beautiful books that I would like to own, and therefore a completely irresponsible thing for an obsessive book-buyer like me to read, but it's just so lushly illustrated, so beautifully presented, and the short artist bios so crisp and enjoyable, that I couldn't help myself. Sigh.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would absolutely love to see a dust jacket exhibit in a museum. Book covers are my favorite type of art!

[Jennifer Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book to read and look at. I read the first 75 pages and then skimmed the rest, reading sections that looked appealing.

[Geoffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars.

Fascinating look at illustrated dust jackets and the people behind the artwork.

In addition, it makes you want to read so many old books!

[Gladimore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the Edward Gorey part again.