Dust Jackets of the 1920s and 1930s^415In 1833 the first book jacket was used by
Longmans & Co., a British publisher, to
protect books from the corrosive effects of
dust and light. The heavy paper wrapped
around the cloth binding was meant to be
discarded after purchase. Such was the
ignominious beginning of what in the 1920 s
and 1930 s became a unique artist’s medium.
For its first fifty years the dust jacket was a
plain paper wrapper usually with a window
cut out to reveal the title and author’s name.
The binding of the average trade book
(which included the spine and front and
back covers) was occasionally stamped or
embossed with a modest filigree or vignette
for decoration. In the late 1890 s decoration
was introduced with more regularity. The
designs of Aubrey Beardsley, in England,
and Will Bradley, in America, were
reproduced on book covers as a kind of miniature poster. Soon, in order to
increase advertising and eye appeal, publishers also printed on the paper
jacket, and by the turn of the century the dust jacket had become the
publishing industry’s standard promotional tool.
Veteran book designers, however, considered the dust jacket an
unwanted appendage. In the classical tradition it was not an intrinsic part
of a book’s design, which only included the cover, binding, and interior
pages. Many esteemed book designers did not design the jackets for their
books, but rather passed that dubious assignment on to a “specialist”—
usually a layout artist trained in the requisites of commerce. As late as the
1950 s the jacket was viewed as the unwanted stepchild. “It could be argued
that the jacket is part of the book, [a jury of book critic/practitioners
including Herbert Bayer, Merle Armitage, and Sidney Jacobs] feels that
this is a temporary and fallacious point of view,” wrote Marshall Lee in
Books for Our Times(Oxford University Press, 1951 ). “One need only
consider the absurdity of having one expensive cover designed that will
permanently conceal another! Either the jacket is a temporary protection