Faber and Faber: Eighty Years of Book Cover Design

by Joseph Connolly

Joseph Connolly - book collector, antiquarian dealer, and acclaimed novelist - has compiled an impassioned guide and love letter to the designers, artists and authors at the heart of Faber's design story. From its beginnings in the 1920s and 1930s on to the classic years of innovation under Berthold Wolpe after the War, and from the celebrated period of collaboration with Pentagram on to the modern day, here is, as he concludes in his preface, 'a lavish celebration of the art and beauty of these magnificent covers, from just the first eighty years'.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Design, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wondrous retrospective of Faber’s innovative cover art, spanning 1929 to 2009. German artist Berthold Wolpe arrived at Faber in the thirties, and devised the famous Albertus typeface that is his most enduring legacy, appearing with minimal accoutrement in large fontsize on the most memorable works. This volume is also a fascinating look at changing trends in cover art across the decades, from the austere block letters of the war years, the exuberant colours, lines, and typefaces of the fifties and sixties, to the painterly flourishes epitomised in the Lawrence Durrell covers, and the emphasis on Wolpe’s work into the seventies (most striking on the work of Ted Hughes). In the 1980s, Faber contracted Pentagram to design their books, resulting in the consistent use of the Faber colophon and top-page boxes with the author name and title. Fewer pages are devoted to these, seeing them as less innovative as the earlier art, although these designs made Faber titles of the eighties and nineties as identifiable as Wolpe’s work and are nothing at which to be sniffed. Having loosened their use of the colophon, Faber’s present-day covers tend to blend into the same amorphous large-press blandness (with some exceptions, i.e. the poetry titles still use Wolpe’s classic designs) and today’s innovative work is coming from the smaller presses, such as Open Letter, Galley Beggar, and And Other Stories.

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Connolly presents us with a veritable treasure of Faber and Faber dust wrappers and covers over the years. In addition he charts the history of the firm, paints a vivid portrait of Berthold Wolpe, Faber's famous designer who introduced the much used Albertus typeface to the firm, gives us a most entertaining personal preface and then, immediately before we see the decade-by-decade colourful illustrations, he details the significant happenings in each of the decades from 1929 through to 2008. The end result is a stunning book that is not only a visual delight but most informative about not only the Faber firm but also about the development of book cover design in general.

The Faber house style noticeably changes through the decades, as one imagines it needed to in order to move with the times. But for me the earlier covers, often the simpler ones but equally as effective as any others, are the most striking with the more clinical photographic ones of later times still impressive but falling behind those earlier efforts.

I hadn't realised that Faber had published quite so much detective fiction, particularly in the 1929-1939 decade, such as 'Death by Request'. 'Death in the Dark', 'Death Rattle', 'The Warrielaw Jewel', 'The Mummy Case' and many others appearing in that period. And it is most noticeable how many top writers are in the Faber stable, possibly due to the presence of T S Eliot at the firm.

This splendid book ends with brief notes on some prominent Faber cover artists where we learn, for instance, that Rowland Emett not only produced a most popular actual railway for the Festival of Britain but he also built the fantasy car for the film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and that Rex Whistler designed the cover for the only P G Wodehouse novel that Faber published - 'Louder and Funnier' in 1932.

It is undoubtedly a great addition to any bibliophile's bookshelves and a book that can very easily be taken down and browsed on many future occasions.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe because I had no real connection to any of the titles, nor did I recognize most of the covers, but this book did not have me ooh-ing and ahh-ing or have the magic like some other books that I've read in the past that are like this one. There wasn't enough information about the art development and process or how the covers interpreted their interiors. There was some history about the company, some biographical information about the designer and his team, but besides describing what the covers look like (which I can see already thanks to tons of pictures) I was left without much to take away. Not what I was hoping for.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for reading up on book printing design history. Although, there is far more pictures than writing. The writing is consise, but it would have been good to have had a few more details about the history.

[Shallowreader VaVeros · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a visual indulgence of beautiful book covers from Faber and Faber. With the exception of an essay on Wolpe there is litte exploration as the reasons behind the design and marketing principles leading to the Faber and Faber look. This somewhat disappointed me.

[Magda · Rating 4 out of 5]

…cheaper and brasher sorts of books would often bear the price on the spine of the jacket.