Judging a Book by Its Cover By Georgia Fowler
“N
ever judge a book by its cover,” we’re told. Whatever deep truths are hinted at in this old adage, it’s easier said than done when it comes to actual books and covers. Long after the plot lines and characters of a book disappear from memory, the cover design has a habit of lingering in our minds. Resisting the temptation to judge a book by its cover is especially difficult when it comes to the work of George Salter (1897–1967), the German-born and—after 1940—American calligrapher, illustrator, teacher, and designer. A prolific jacket designer capable of capturing the essence of a book on its cover, Salter revolutionized book jacket design, fundamentally altering the way this art form was understood—and establishing jacket designers as artists in their own right. The Newberry Library holds 66 boxes of Salter’s papers and artwork, a generous gift of the artist’s wife, Agnes Salter, and his daughter, Janet Salter
Rosenberg. The George Salter Papers include correspondence, notes, and articles written by and about Salter, but the vast majority of the material comprises his book jacket artwork. Alongside sketches and prints for multiple German and American design jobs, the collection contains several books and the jackets he designed for them. Spanning approximately 95 linear feet, the Salter collection houses a wealth of beautiful work. I can attest to this beauty myself. This past summer, I worked as an intern at the Newberry, fulfilling a practicum requirement for my Book Studies Concentration at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where I am now a senior majoring in history. My work at the Newberry focused on producing a finding aid for the Salter Papers. Though a paper finding aid was created in 1997, it was never digitized, so my job was to reorganize the collection and create a new digital aid that users could consult online to search and navigate the archive. Because I had created such tools before, the task was not particularly daunting. I was unprepared, however, for how attached I would become to the collection. I was also surprised to find that scholars have paid little attention to Salter. His work is relevant to many areas, including art and design history, media studies, and literature. Yet aside from a definitive biography, Classic Book Jackets: The Design Legacy of George Salter, by Wellesley professor Thomas S. Hansen, very little has been written about Salter. (I draw on Hansen’s work throughout this article.) This is an especially surprising omission given Salter’s fascinating life and his transformative impact on the world of jacket design. Top: Detail from George Salter’s original cover illustration for Christopher Morley’s Ex Libris. Bottom: Of Mice and Men cover illustration screen printed by Salter on book cloth. The Newberry Magazine
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