This morning, literary critic Michelle Dean penned an article for Flavorwire assailing the purpose and usefulness of dust jackets, those glossy outer shells of hardcover books. Not one to judge a book ...

What makes an outstanding book cover? The Book Jacket Designers Guild of the 1940s and ’50s defined the art as the “successful integration of concept with graphic means … and expression of the spirit ...

The Illustrated Dust Jacket, 1920-1970 chronicles the rise of the book dust jacket from disposable object to a creative platform for publishing design. “In view of its origins as a plain protection to ...

We are cautioned to avoid judging a book by its cover, yet that is precisely what publishers hope we will do. Dust-jacket (book cover) illustration, which came into its own in the 1920s, has long ...

What makes an outstanding book cover? The Book Jacket Designers Guild of the 1940s and '50s defined the art as the "successful integration of concept with graphic means and expression of the spirit of ...

In The Illustrated Dust Jacket, 1920-1970, Martin Salisbury, professor of illustration at Cambridge School of Art, discusses the life and work of more than 50 artists and illustrators who created some ...

You might be surprised how much value hides on your shelves; a worn spine or a yellowed dust jacket can sometimes equal ...

Great images of books from around the world and the Web. Over at Design Observer, there’s a very interesting short history of the dust jacket. They were originally meant to be protective wrapping for ...

Dust doesn’t care if your shelves are alphabetised or your spines are straight. It drifts in, settles soft as flour, and turns the top edges of novels into chalk lines. We’ve all had that moment when ...