75 Covers of Toni Morrison's Beloved From Around the World

This weekend marked the 30th anniversary of the publication of Toni Morrison’s masterpiece Beloved, a novel about a woman who kills her own child rather than let her be swallowed by slavery, and who is haunted by that decision in more ways than one. Beloved is widely recognized as one of the greatest American novels ever written—it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 (it was nominated for, but did not win, the National Book Award, a slight that forty-eight writers and critics protested with a letter in The New York Times), as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award, the Melcher Book Award, the Lyndhurst Foundation Award, and the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award. In 2006, The New York Times found it to be the best novel written in the previous 25 years.

Prizes or no, this novel should be read by everyone, and luckily, it has been published in many incarnations and translations, here and all over the world. In celebration of the novel’s birthday, here are 75 of its covers—some harrowing, some gorgeous, a few wildly inappropriate (I’m looking at you, Swedish blonde baby-doll cover). Which one is your favorite?

First edition; Alfred A. Knopf, 1987

Alfred A. Knopf, bound by Bayntun-Riviere, 1987

Plume Contemporary Fiction, 1988

Ediciones B ([aompain), 1988

Plume, 1988

Picador, 1988

Bra Bocker (Sweden), 1988

Cheshmeh Publication (Iran), 1988

Tammi (Finland), 1988

Frassinelli (Italy), 1988

Christian Bourgois (France), 1989

Círculo de Lectores (Spain), 1989

Nefeli (Greece), 1989

مركز الأهرام للترجمة والنشر – القاهرة (Egypt), 1989

France loisirs, 1990

Signet International Edition, 1991

Rowohlt (Germany), 1992

10/18 (France), 1993

Lindhardt & Ringhof (Denmark), 1993

Ediciones B (Spain), 1993

Народна култура (Bulgaria), 1993

Bokförlaget Trevi (Sweden), 1993

Cankarjeva založba (Slovenia), 1993

Reinbek bei Hamburg: rororo – Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag (Germany), 1994

הספרייה החדשה (Israel), 1994

De Norske Bokklubbene A/S (Norway), 1994

De Norske Bokklubbene (Norway), 1994

De Norske Bokklubbene (Norway), 1994

Vintage, 1997

Vintage (UK), 1997

Circulo do Livro (Brazil), 1997

Editora: Best Seller (Brazil), date unknown

Varrak (Estonia), 1997

Pocket (France), 1998

Rowohlt, Reinbek (Germany), 1998

Knopf (Gift Edition), 1998

10/18 (France), 1999

Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century, 2000

Aschehoug (Norway), 2003

De Norske Bokklubbene A/S (Norway), 2003

들녘 (Korea), 2003

Vintage, 2004; design by Dorothy Schmiderer Baker

10/18 (France), 2004

Nobelprijsbibliotheek (Netherlands), 2004

Debolsillo (Spain), 2005

Иностранка, 2005

Everyman’s Library Classics, 2006

Mediasat Group / Eesti Päevaleht (Estonia), 2006

Zvaigzne ABC (Latvia), 2006

Vintage Classics (UK), 2007

ZNAK (Poland), 2007

Świat Książki (Poland), date unknown

Vidarshana (Sri Lanka), 2007

Lider (Romania), 2007

Rowohlt Taschenbuch (Germany), 2007

Companhia das Letras (Portugal), 2007

The Family Library Project (Egypt), 2007

10/18 (France), 2008

Alpha Books và NXB Phụ Nữ (Vietnam), 2008

Frassinelli (Italy), 2009

Tammi (Finland), 2009

Publicações Dom Quixote (Portugal), 2009

Cofina Media/ Publicações Dom Quixote (Portugal), 2011

Laguna (Serbia), 2013

Bonnier Pocket (Sweden), 2014

Art (Romania), 2014

Świat Książki (Poland), 2014

Munhakdongne (Korea), 2014

DEBOLS!LLO (Spain), 2014

Illustrated edition; The Folio Society, 2015. Cover and illustrations by Joe Morse

Sel Yayıncılık (Turkey), 2016

Must (Norway), 2016

Aschehoug (Norway), 2016

Фабула (Ukraine), 2017

Unknown, and possibly a fan cover, but too good not to include