Wrapping Up the Meat
April 12, 2009
It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it. Albert Einstein
Though he was talking about clothing I think the saying works equally well for book covers, which have been on my mind lately. This latest contemplation came about when an e-newsletter to which I subscribe, Today in Literature, landed in my in-box last week. One of the pieces was on the cover art for The Great Gatsby, which was published on April 10, 1925.
Included alongside the short piece were two images—the original drawing for the cover, the one to which Fitzgerald became so attached tthat he incorporated into the story and refused to allow his editor to change it, and an earlier version. Relatively little is known about the artist who created it, but what is certain is that it became one of the most famous and popular book covers of modern literature. But Einstein was right. The cover might have died on the remainder tables if the “meat” had been mediocre. Fortunately, it was not. Each is powerful, together they are unforgettable.
 I own a first edition replica of The Great Gatsby that is exact in every way except for a single word on the copyright page that identifies it as a copy. And when I read it, as I do every year, I never fail to spend some time, before opening the pages, running my fingers over the cover, tracing the tear, tapping on the lights, staring at the nude image in the eyes. Could there be a more perfect melding of cover art and story?
The history of dust jackets and their cover art is relatively short. Dust wrappers, as they were originally known, were plain brown paper wrappers sealed around the book in order to protect it until the buyer got home. The first known ones were believed to date from 1832, but a recent discovery in the Bodleian Library (University of Oxford) dates to 1829. This is one of the early sealed wrappers that completely covered the book. But dust wrappers did not become common until the late nineteenth century. According to Mark R. Godburn in his forthcoming book, Nineteenth Century Dustjackets: An Illustrated History, the earliest known detachable paper cover dates from 1791. These were the precursors to dust jackets:
The revolution occurred in the 1820s when advances in technology and techniques made it possible for the first time to mass produce bindings. These bindings were cloth, and they were much cheaper to produce than leather and vellum bindings that had to be made by hand one at a time. Within a few years, most new books were being issued in machine bound cloth (the procedure was called case binding), and as publishers found effective ways to decorate the bindings with gold leaf and colors, they became increasingly attractive and widely popular. At the same time, as the social, political and commercial advances of the Industrial Age helped to spread literacy and better wages to millions of people, there was tremendous growth in the sale of books.
The advent of mass produced bindings eventually led to the practice of issuing dust jackets on new books, both for protection and for promotion. But dust jackets did not appear right away—at least not in large numbers. There was a transitional period lasting several decades between the time when cloth bindings became standard and when dust jackets did. The record of surviving jackets—which is the only record we have for determining the scope of their use in the nineteenth century—reveals only a handful of British and German firms known to have issued jackets of one type or another between the 1830s and the 1850s, although jackets were probably more common during these decades than the few survivors indicate. For the majority of publishers who were active in Europe, Great Britain and the United States, there is no known evidence of any use of dust jackets until the 1870s or later, in many cases as much as half a century after cloth binding became standard.
It wasn’t until 1857 that the earliest dust jackets appeared on books printed in English, the four-volume The Comprehensive History of England. Then in 1859, a copy of William Wordsworth Pastoral Poems appeared with a jacket that reprinted the title page surrounded by a decorative border and woodcut illustration, the first jacket to carry an illustration. Thus began attempts to decorate and otherwise use the jackets to attract readers—though not by every publisher. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, jackets of every type could be found from plain to decorated, and with no text to full advertising of a publisher’s line-up. But because they were not yet valued by their owners, many of them have not survived.
But by the 1890s, dust jackets were common. In fact, they were beginning to resemble the form we know today, though they were plainer, blank except for the title on the spine. At the same time, the age of advertising was developing, and book jackets were seen as a useful advertising medium for the publisher to use in promoting the company’s new books.
Since then, the role of the jacket has grown. Collectible books such as The Great Gatsby are many, many times more valuable with a jacket than without. A search showed that a first edition, first state copy of Fitzgerald’s greatest novel with dust jacket priced at a heart-stopping $500,000. Without it? A mere $8,500.
While The Great Gatsby is one of the best, it is far from being an orphan in the field of great covers. There are far too many to list, and anyway any choices I made would be nothing more than my opinion. I do like many of the twentieth-century covers from the 1930s through the 1950s. But wonderful ones abound in all decades and all genres.
One I don’t yet own is an oddity I found while researching something else—The Rite of Trebizond and Other Tales. It’s a collection of tales from Ex Occidente Press of Bucharest, Romania. Their specialty is “fiction of the supernatural, the odd and the weird, the strange and the decadent, the fantastic and the obscure, the very holy and the luxuriously heretical,” and this book seems to fit that description very well given its fantastically bizarre cover. Whether the “meat” will live up to its wrapper is another question altogether, but it is sufficiently enticing that I plan to spend $35 for it just to own the cover. Sometimes it is, after all, in the wrapping.
Upcoming Book Festivals:
Book festivals are blooming across the country with seven book festivals happening this week and next weekend. First up is the 6th annual Arkansas Literary Festival, which takes place in Little Rock from April 16-19. Though their web site has no information as yet on the festivities, if it happens and you are in the area, go!
Over in the state of Washington, specially in Spokane and Cheney, Get Lit! will take place from April 16-19. Oddly, this festival’s web site has no information either but refers you to their blog. Again, go and participate if you can.
Denton will be hosting its North Texas Book Festival on April 17-18 at the Center for Visual Arts. Elmer Kelton and Dave Titus are their featured authors. In addition, Sue Goldstein will be broadcasting live and for the children, Stephen McKenzie will be there with his puppet friends. For adults, the special Book Trails Dinner will offer the opportunity to meet and mingle with their featured authors and enjoy the book awards.
Over on the eastern seaboard Maryland has the 10th annual Bethesda Literary Festival, which runs from April 17-19. Among the guests and events are novelists, journalists, poets (among them (Gwen Ifill, Mary Higgins Clark, E.J. Dionne, and Kimberly Dozier), talks, panel presentations, author signings, a Writer’s Center Small Press Fair, an Authors’ Reception, a poetry slam, a young adult book and movie party, youth writing contests, several politically-oriented discussions, and a comedy night. There is literally something for everyone at this festival.
Returning to the south, Montgomery will be hosting the Alabama Book Festival on Saturday, April 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the grounds of the historic Old Alabama Town. With more than fifty authors (including Civil Rights authors), fifty exhibitors, a Writing Stimulus workshop, a Teacher workshop, panels, author presentations and signings, and more this looks like a great place to be on this weekend.
In Kentucky, the city of Bowling Green has the Southern Kentucky Book Fest on Saturday, April 18. Children’s events include author and illustrator presentations and a special Tea Party with author Kathleen Ernst. Adult events include award presentations, authors Mitch Albom and Harlan Coben (among others), a wide variety of panels and presentations on topics ranging from gardening to current events, from music to Kentucky novels, from cooking to murder, from poetry to biography, and from science to travel
And on the weekend of April 18-19, Pennsylvania will see the Free Library Festival (formerly the Philadelphia Book Festival) come to life. The 25,000 attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy tours of the central library and its rare book department, a children’s outdoor stage with continuous entertainment, numerous author panels and presentations, a literary marketplace with a large number and variety of vendors, a Storybook Parade, a short story slam, and more.
The Pub House:
Chelsea Green is the perfect “spring” publisher. Their focus is “sustainable living books,” that is, books on the practice of sustainable living. What kinds of books are they? Those that cover renewable energy, green building, organic agriculture, eco-cuisine and ethical business. Their delectable selection of books will help you and your children explore ways to live better and more independently.
Among their ten categories are the following books that intrigued me: the Winter Harvest Handbook, a practical guide to raising crops even in the harshest winters in portable plastic greenhouses that require no or little heat. Coffee is more than just a drink. Each cup of it incorporates a full range of international issues—globalization, immigration, women’s rights, pollution, indigenous rights, and self-determination. But with several layers of middlemen between the coffee growers and the consumers, it can be hard to get a feeling for the impact our choices make. Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee takes readers on a tour of ten countries highlighting the people, landscapes and customs that make up coffee’s history, allowing the reader to discover an ancient forest in Ethiopia, learn about Mexico’s Death Train, and meet the Mamos of Columbia. Gardeners at heart without the yards will appreciate Fresh Food From Small Spaces, a comprehensive and fun guide to growing food in small places. Whether you have a tiny yard or only a windowsill, the information needed to produce your own food is here. The Green Living Handbook is not new, but the revised edition available now offers updated tips in its step-by-step “lifestyle transformation program.” In Late Winter We Ate Pears: A Year of Hunger and Love is a food lovers book, a collection of vignettes taken from a year that the husband and wife author team spent in Italy. Recipes are included, but the best parts are the glimpses of culture seen in the olive groves, the baying of wild dogs, and the rolling out of pizza dough in an ancient hill town.
While you are there, I recommend checking out their videos, podcasts, community blog posts, Green Events calendar, the Green Tip of the Day, and more. This is an excellent site for information as well as books.
Of Interest:
It’s the perfect match. Powell’s Books, the Portland, Oregon independent bookstore so large it has its own map, is branching out—to a farmers market. Beginning April 25 and lasting through October 24, on the last Saturday of each month, the bookstore will operate a booth in a location in the Portland Farmers Market, where it will sell new and used books. Its books will change with the seasons. Nor surprisingly, the first several themes are “going to seed.” Titles will be about gardening and composting. Later in the interests include local food and dining, preserving, and later, hunting for and cooking mushrooms. “Two iconic Portland organizations are coming together to provide our shoppers a wonderful collection of books to help market-goers prepare and store the region's bounty and grow some of their own food,” said the market’s executive director Ann Forsthoefel.
Other booksellers might want to take a look at this. It’s fantastic. It also makes me wonder what else books could be paired with.
This Week . . .
If you are a member of a book club and willing to participate in a survey about how your club gets its information, make selections, using book networking web sites, and other questions, ReadingGroupGuides.com is interested in talking to you. The survey consists of sixty-two questions, and they are hoping to get a minimum of 7,500 respondents. The results will be shared with publishers, booksellers and librarians to aid them in book club planning. The survey is open until April 30, and participants are eligible to receive free books.
Until next week, read well, read often and read on!
Lauren
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