Forgotten Book: JACKETS REQUIRED by Steven Heller and Seymour ChwastForgotten Book: JACKETS REQUIRED by Steven Heller & Seymour Chwast

Jackets Required by Stephen Heller and Seymour Chwast, © 1995 trade paperback, Chronicle Books

This is the 12th in my series of Forgotten Books

Jackets Required by Steven Heller & Seymour Chwast

I thought I might take a quick break from my reveries of the 1960’s and the new wave that have been present during the last three reviews, so this little non-fiction title I got from good friend and excellent writer, Bill Crider, seemed to fit the bill (pun intended). This will be a relatively short review just like the book. Subtitled An Illustrated History of American Book Jacket Design 1920 – 1950, that pretty well tells you what this book is about.

As a book collector I am interested in how the book has evolved over the years. Recently Penguin Books celebrated the 75th anniversary of the birth of the modern paperback. (Yes, I know there were other paperback titles and publishers, but that’s a different column). But, before the paperback, there was the hardback volume. In the 1830’s the first dust jackets were applied tom volumes. Their intent was to protect the boards of the book form wear and dust. They were intended to be discarded once the book was safely ensconced on the shelves of the library. As such, the early dust jackets were plain and contained little to no information. Illustrations on the dust jacket were introduced in the second half of the 19th century, but really did not come into wide usage until the 1890’s.

The authors explore the rise of the American dust jacket art and the phases it went through in some small detail in the text of this book. While the text portion of the book is minimal, the illustrations are extensive, They divided the first section into thematic covers – fiction, war, western, mystery, humor, places, adventure, romance, manners, political, short stories, poetry, juvenile, historical fiction, politics, journalism, science, history, biography, travel, culture, and lifestyle are all features, some more extensively than others. Then there is a section of great illustrators – E. McKnight Kauffer, William Addison Dwiggins, Arthur Hawkins, Jr., George Salter, Alvin Lustig, and Paul Rand are all featured.

In many cases, the dust jacket is probably much more interesting than the book it illustrated. Over the years I have had a few of these, most notably the Olaf Stapledon LAST AND FIRST MEN and James M. Cain’s THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RING TWICE, both designed by Arthur Hawkins, Jr. and they were striking works.

The book runs a little over 140 pages and 120 of them are photos of dust jackets. I am including several striking examples to help illustrate the variety and amazing images.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.