This post began because I wanted to tout the above book by Thomas Hanson, Classic Book Jackets: The Design Legacy of George Salter. Princeton Architectural Press published it in 2004, and it seems to have already been remaindered, because copies can be found in abundance.
Before scanning my favorite images from the book, I did a google image search and wound up at Thomas Hanson's website for George Salter, which includes many of his covers.
I also wound up at a great French site -- nooSFere -- for American science fiction. (They probably do other stuff, I haven't fully explored their vast site.) They featured one of my favorite Salter designs:
Within seconds I stumbled upon this Virgil Finlay cover for the Jan. 1941 issue of Fantastic Novels.
Searching for Salter, I also wound up at the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies. They have a gallery called Exile Authors on George Salter’s Book Jackets.
They also have a gallery for the new-to-me artist Albert Bloch.
I especially enjoy his "Portrait of a Man, 1911":
I've got am imange of Salter's cover for Cortázar's Hopscotch here:
ReplyDeletehttp://home1.gte.net/ckearin/dreamersrise165.html
I've always liked the Salter jacket, but apparently the author did not. When he received the advance copies he told his Spanish-language publisher “the dust jacket is horrendous, but as soon as you toss it in the trash the rest is a wonder of a book.”
Although as far as I can remember Salter didn't design any other jackets for Cortázar titles, his general concept was recycled for 62: A Model Kit, which was designed by someone else.
Thanks for the link and story.
ReplyDeleteI have the Avon Books edition of Hopscotch -- I'll have to look at the other books in that series (and others by Roger Stine).
The Pantheon series is indeed drab -- I guess the design immediately brands the book as being in a series, so it's a success in the publisher's eyes...but I'm going to be hunting down other editions.