The Best Book Covers of All Time

Created by Edita Kaye

To the Lighthouse

by Virginia Woolf

Designed by Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf’s older sister, this book cover displays a

semi-abstracted image that can be seen as a

representation of the books intensity in the last few

pages.

Prejudices: A Selection

by H.L Mencken

American designer Paul Rand created this modern-looking

book cover, known to be influenced by Modernists

Kandinsky, Klee, and Miro. Booksellers loved Rand’s

jackets because they drew so much attention to potential

buyers and were unlike anything else on the shelves.

Psycho by Robert Bloch

Tony Palladino knew that limited means could create

maximum impact as he designed this spooky cover.

Alfred Hitchcock even purchased the rights to use the lettering from this jacket for his film, whose opening credit sequence would later

become famous.

The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet

Christoph Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke

This beautifully detailed hard-covered jacket is one of many

German Insel Bücherei editions, known for their

delicate, consistent design that appealed to financially

modest customers. And keep your eyes peeled, because these small hardbacks are still being produced today!

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

by James Joyce

This pocketable, modern-looking paperback paved the way for Penguin’s notable tri-

band jacket design that occurred in the mid 1930’s, suggesting that anybody could afford good quality

literature.

A Clockwork Orange

by Anthony Burgess

Perhaps one of the most recognizable book covers of

all time, David Pelham’s cover quickly became a classic.

The use of primary colors and bold contrasts was

revolutionary at the time, and disturbing given the content

of the book.

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran

Foer

You’ll recognize the hand-drawn scrawl of this jacket on a lot books published in today’s age, but not many

have been able to match the energy of this particular

cover designed by Jon Gray in 2003.

– Edita Kaye

Want to see some more amazing book covers?

Check out CNN's article on the world's greatest book covers here. Thank

you for viewing!