32 Beautiful Early Dust Jackets for Iconic Books

In the old days, before it seemed that the world was crashing down around us every minute, we used to have arguments on the internet about things like dust jackets. Yes, dust jackets, on which opinions were decidedly mixed! Now we put a lot of stock in dust jackets—no one really follows the rule about judging books by their covers, you know—but they didn’t even exist until the 1820s, and in the beginning they were usually plain, utilitarian things meant quite literally to prevent the books from gathering dust, and they were often discarded by booksellers before display, as much more effort was put into the cloth or cardboard bindings underneath. But beginning at the turn of the last century, publishers began producing decorated dust jackets and simpler bindings (for one thing, it was a lot cheaper), and by 1920 this was the norm.

So just for fun, and because it’s almost the holidays and we all need some Feel Good Content, I’ve collected 32 beautiful, interesting, or otherwise appealing dust jackets of classic works, mostly from the 1920s and 30s. NB that I left off a lot of classics whose covers would be familiar to contemporary readers—no one needs to see that same old covers of The Great Gatsby or Gone With the Wind on a list like this. You’ve seen them a million times already. But have you seen the first edition of Decline and Fall, designed by Evelyn Waugh himself? Either way, read on for some fine and utterly unproblematic book porn.

A.C. McClurg & Co., 1914. Image via Sotheby’s

D. Appleton and Company, 1920. Image via B&B Rare Books

Harcourt Brace and Howe, 1921. Image via Caliban Books.

The Hogarth Press, 1925. Design by Vanessa Bell.

Knopf, 1926. Jacket design by Miguel Covarrubias.

The Readers Library Publishing Company Ltd., 1927. Design by Aubrey Hammond.

First American edition, Albert & Charles Boni, 1927. Image via Manhattan Rare Book Company

Knopf, 1928. Image via eBay

Chapman & Hall, 1928. Design by Evelyn Waugh.

Constable, 1928. Image via Bauman Rare Books.

Hogarth Press, 1928. Image via Bauman Rare Books

John Steinbeck’s first novel, McBride, 1929.

Scribner’s, 1929. Image via Bauman’s Rare Books.

Jonathan Cape, 1929. Image via Raptis Rare Books.

Grosset & Dunlap, 1930. Image via Vintage Books.

Chatto and Windus, 1930. Image via Peter Harrington.

London Martin Secker, 1930. Image via AbeBooks.

John Day, 1931. Image via Bauman Rare Books

Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1932. Image via Sotheby’s.

Knopf, 1932.

First UK edition, Jonathan Cape, 1932. Image via Toovey’s

Liveright, 1933. Image via Heritage Auctions.

Viking, 1933. Image via Bauman Rare Books.

Harper & Brothers, 1933. Image via Bauman Rare Books

Ballou, 1934. Image via Swann Galleries

Harcourt, Brace, & Company, 1934. Jacket designed by Alfred Maurer. Image via Raptis Rare Books.

London Constable & Co Ltd, 1934. Image via Peter Harrington.

Methuen, 1937. Image via Hyraxia Books

Lippincott, 1937.

Random House, 1938. Image via Raptis Rare Books.

First American edition, Doubleday Doran & Company, 1938. Image via Whitmore Rare Books.

Secker and Warburg, 1938. Image via Bauman Rare Books

Stackpole Sons, 1939. Image via Bauman Rare Books