Front cover - Alan Powers

Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design is a comprehensive survey of the very best of cover and jacket design from the 20th century. The most important and innovative designs are explored, including the distinctive yellow dust-jackets of the Gollancz novels of the 1930s, the colour-coded series design of Penguin paperbacks in the 1960s and the award-winning paperback designs by Canongate in the 1990s. Chapters are devoted to separate themes - the development of the modern book jacket in the 1920s and 1930s, the diverse styles that evolved in the post-war era, the paperback explosion of the 1960s and 1970s, and the recent revival in jacket design in the hands of design companies such as Pentagram. Revealing double-page features appear in each chapter on such tropics as the Cold War novel, classic novels of the period, and individual authors such as Len Deighton and Ian Fleming. With 300 jackets in full-colour, including rare first editions, innovative designs by leading designers such as E.McKnight Kauffer and Paul Rand, and newly discovered gems, together with an insightful text by leading design expert Alan Powers, this fascinating book will delight anyone with a passion for books.