Vintage Book Covers

[Marla]

One of the joys of reading vintage books is looking at the covers. Various styles of book designs were popular during the Golden Era. My favorite book covers from that era are the ones with Modernist-style covers of the 1950s and 1960s.


What are your favorite vintage book covers?

Share your favorite covers here!

 

[Kahuna]

I found a tore up photo of this online and fixed it up with a little photoshopping. Beautiful colors.

 

[Marla]

I like the bold look of this first-edition book jacket for Auntie Mame which was published in 1955.

(Sorry, I couldn't find a larger size)

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of my favorite books, published in 1937 -- perfectly capturing both the snappy tone of the book (the definitive self-help text for single women in the thirties) and the overall style of the era.

Its sequel, published the following year, kept the same theme:

And the final book in the trilogy, a cookbook for the live-aloner that's very useful to this day ---

 

[flat-top]

Off Topic but not really:

Vintage book covers of modern movies:

See them all here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacesick/sets/72157614482499746/

 

[Marla]

What great covers Marjorie Hillis' books have! I've been wanting to read Orchids On Your Budget since you mentioned it in another thread, Lizzie, but I didn't know Hillis was so prolific in the how-to book market.

I wish the modern reprints of her books had the original cover art!!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The artwork for all the Hillis books was by Cipe Pineles, another of those smart, independent thirties women that modern culture pretends never existed. She had been on the art staff at Vogue when Hillis worked there, and they became steady collaborators. The original editions of the Hillis books all featured Pineles cartoon illustrations at the chapter heads, done in the same distinctive style as the dust jacket art.