quietly

I had seen interesting pieces at Book Patrol and in a Washington Post Michael Dirda column discussing Book-Jackets: Their History, Forms, and Use by G. Thomas Tanselle and published by the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia (image from the Society’s website).  What a treasure of a book for us book-jacket lovers!

I do love book-jackets, plain and simply; I always carefully leave them on a book unless I am traveling and don’t want the cover “messed up.” It has been interesting, therefore, to observe my three-year-old grandson who upon receiving a new book with a book-jacket always removes the book jacket as his first action; he has absolutely no use for it. (This did precipitate a learning moment about how we do NOT tear them off library books…sigh.)

In use since the early to mid-1850′s according to most historians, book-jackets, dust covers, book covers serve more than the function of preserving the hard covering; they serve in modern terminology as a billboard in many respects, and they are clearly valued art. An example of this value is the original beautiful cover of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1925 by Charles Scribner’s and  Sons. Book Patrol notes this exquisite book-jacket was designed by artist Francis Cugat, and it is considered by many “a high-spot of dust jacket art and design.”  A first edition of the book itself is said to usually sell in the $3,000 – $4000 range. “But the  book with a dust jacket in good condition – now you’re talking $125,000  and up!”

Referring back to the “billboard” concept, what one of us has not had a book report assignment to make a book-jacket? In today’s digital age there are even templates provided on child-friendly sites where those book-jackets can be designed. Mothers have become creative in how to use those child-discarded book-jackets, there are posters of book-jackets to be ordered, and frequently book jackets are re-designed to lure a new audience or simply for discussion like these in a posting by Matt Roeser. As some have noted, cover design is needed even by the e-book industry. The topic of book-jackets is popular enough to have been featured on a CBS Sunday Morning Show in the last two years.

Children’s literature is no exception in regard to the valued book-jacket.  Two books on the topic of book-jackets were published in 2006 by Alan Powers with the second one titled Children’s Book Covers: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design serving as a companion to Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design. The children’s edition covers the last two hundred years of children’s book-jacket design. One of the most interesting of recent children’s book-jackets is that of Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross and illustrated by Stephen Biesty.  The book-jacket is a doubled-over piece opening to exhibit a map with the various explorers’ voyages visually outlined.

Book-jackets, book covers are always one focus in the yearly “best of” lists. What are your favorites for 2012?

Finally of course there is the move from the serious to the sublime. Often called “city-book-jackets” it’s the book-jacket that serves as the “cover up” when for whatever reason you do not wish to be seen reading the book you are actually reading.  For those city subway riders needing a new cover, check out those for sale at TrendHunter.
 

“Fill ‘er up” as Book Patrol said it.  Another version of Books at the Gas Station also shared by Book Patrol.

How many times have you found yourself driving by one of those plastic, poorly styled “fake rocks” covering a utility apparatus in a residential area and thought “that is the ugliest cover” I have ever seen. Sometimes I think seeing the utility “sculpture” would be far better. 

Everett Public Library will have no such eyesore, take a look at the electric transformer cover Book Patrol has shared the library now has!

The Kids are Alright: 4th-Graders in Detroit Take Library Matters Into Their Own Hands

/via Book Patrol

Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year

No, this bizarre title did not win in 1990 when eligible, but Book Patrol has suggested it be considered “for lifetime membership in this illustrious group.” I tend to agree. In looking around the web for information, I learned of the Weber Journal in which there is a review of this book, a far more positive one than found in Publishers Weekly. Yes, at least two reviews for this title.  Take heart aspiring authors.

Oh, 2012 Diagram Prize?  Check it out!

(image from seattlepi.com)

The 2012 National Poetry Month poster designed by Chin-Yee Lai features the line “…wait on the wind, catch a scent of salt, call it our life” from U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine’s poem “Our Valley.”

As poet and businessman Wallace Stevens profoundly put it: 
poetry is “a response to the daily necessity of getting the world right.”

—-from BOOK PATROL

F is for Finding Fiction in the Forest

I did not know of Dard Hunter (1883-1996) who according to Book Patrol was known in his day as the king of handmade papermaking. Prior to papermaking he was a graphic artist and printer; this book catalogs that part of his career which was in the Arts and Crafts style.  After reading the Book Patrol post I can just feel this paper, thick and lovely.