The 25 Most Iconic Book Covers of All Time

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

How recognizable is this screen plan by S. Neil Fujita, with illustration by John Kashiwabara? So iconic that you tin bargain immoderate fig of T-shirts that spoof its design. To sanction a few, you tin get a garment to assertion you are: The Rodfather (with a fisherman casting alternatively of marionette strings), The Dogfather (bones arsenic marionette sticks), The Gabagool (for the fans of cured meats), oregon The Godmother (it’s pink).

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Here’s a classical from R. D. Scudellari. His enactment makes bold usage of typography. The O’s tucked up against the L benignant of marque a face. Toni Morrison’s sanction lacks the dots connected the i’s. The stacked S’s marque a ocular play connected the assonance of the sounds. The wings are a small angelic possibly and motion to the biblical title. Overall, this plan is little astir reflecting the publication itself and much astir creating thing akin to a recognizable logo that proclaims this publication to beryllium capital-I Important. Which, to beryllium fair, it is.

Thank you for signing up! Keep an oculus connected your inbox.

By signing up you hold to our terms of use

Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges

The screen of the 1964 paperback of Labyrinths from New Directions includes a photograph by Gilda Kuhlman connected the cover. She was the Production Editor and Art Director for New Directions successful the 1960s. This is 1 of my favourite books, and the screen is perfectly mysterious. I similar that each astatine erstwhile it is crisp and curved, afloat of chiseled shapes that signifier a funny collective. It merits being studied. It’s a cleanable lucifer for a publication that’s ever making you question reality.

Flowers successful the Attic by V.C. Andrews 

Talk astir iconic! Milton Charles designed the paperback, whose metallic foil-embossed screen has a die-cut spread representing the house’s attic. When the screen is opened, a afloat leafage coating called a stepback reveals the creepy family, illustrated by Gillian Hills. It’s lurid and voyeuristic successful the champion imaginable way. The remainder of the Dollanganger bid received a likewise iconic treatment. If you travel crossed an aged transcript that has the cutout and the stepback — aboriginal printings don’t person the spread successful the screen — you’re a fortunate duck.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Janet Halverson designed this screen successful 1969. Its simplicity is striking, and the colors are vivid. I’m nary ornithologist, but I’m guessing the fork-tailed vertebrate connected the screen is simply a swallow. Maya Angelous work the Bible doubly arsenic a child, and incorporated Biblical mythology into her heartwrenching autobiography. The Bible uses swallows gathering nests adjacent the sanctuary arsenic grounds of God’s love. Plus, their agility successful formation makes them a vertebrate particularly emblematic of freedom. It’s a beauteous and fitting prime for this cover.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 

Did you cognize this iconic screen of The Hobbit is Tolkien’s ain work? You tin work much astir the changes to it implicit the years, but what a gem. The mountains are excessively pointy to beryllium real. The runes hint astatine what benignant of mythology we’re successful for, and hey, don’t those birds look awfully big? Do you similar this archetypal screen the best, oregon did you similar erstwhile they colored the prima successful red?

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Edward McKnight Kauffer, who designed this cover, was known mostly for his poster art. It makes sense, therefore, that this screen is truthful eye-catching. The look connected the screen is bathed successful some airy and shadow. The mode the airy appears to beryllium falling from supra arsenic good arsenic the criss-cross implicit the look possibly allude to the opening of the book. In it, the unnamed narrator describes his underground country lit with energy stolen from the city’s grid.

Tender is the Storm by Johanna Lindsey

A database of the astir iconic publication covers without a Robert McGinnis screen is nary database astatine all, if you inquire me. I had to take this romance screen due to the fact that it was yet excessively blistery to handle! The archetypal printing truly has the hero’s buttcheeks hanging retired similar that. But the adjacent 1 enactment a reddish starburst implicit his loins proclaiming the publication a “coast-to-coast champion seller.” McGinnis is known for long, leggy figures and melodramatic scenes, and astatine property 96, he’s inactive working! Check retired Hard Case Crime for his caller work.

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Jason Ramirez and Nayon Cho designed this screen that makes fantabulous usage of the elegant and classical Lydian font, which has been a fashionable prime for publication covers successful the past fewer years. The golden lines notation to the creation of kintsugi, successful which breached pottery is repaired utilizing gold. This almighty representation shows that successful making her sanction nationalist and telling her story, Miller’s trauma is portion of her history, but surely not each of her.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

You cognize a publication screen is iconic erstwhile it tin beryllium ported from publication to movie franchise to taxable parkland rides with ease. This screen by renowned decorator Chip Kidd is simply a quintessential illustration of this. There’s a large occurrence of the Spark & Fire podcast astir the instauration of this cover. The representation of Michael Crichton’s fax to proclaim “Wow! Fucking Fantastic Jacket” is not to beryllium missed.

The Animorphs by K.A. Applegate 

This full bid has unforgettable covers, predominantly designed by David Mattingly. First published successful 1996, Animorphs quaintly shows what machine graphics were susceptible of, regarding integer morphs betwixt images. These books traumatized a procreation with their depiction of the horrors of warfare and the nonaccomplishment of innocence that comes with it. Aimed astatine kids connected the brink of puberty, these publication covers bash a large occupation showing however scary and confusing it is to spell done large changes.

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

There are those lamenting the “book blob” epoch of screen design, but I’m ne'er going to beryllium huffy astatine bold, colorful covers. I deliberation The Mothers, published successful 2016, somewhat ushered successful this era. With lines that possibly suggest a quality profile, oregon possibly not, Rachel Willey’s screen plan eschews making an evident and reductive prime for what motherhood looks like. The publication explores the slipperiness of the conception arsenic well. It’s an enigmatic and intriguing cover.

Night Shift by Stephen King 

No screen much terrifying! This screen has haunted maine since I was a child, and Dom Brautigam is liable for this nightmare. (LeVar Burton is liable for others.) The archetypal printing had a screen showing the eyes floating against a bluish background. That screen had holes chopped wherever the eyeballs were, similar Flowers successful the Attic’s attic, truthful upon opening it, 1 witnessed the (shudder) bandaged hand. I’m definite that was a hellhole of a reveal, but I find the afloat manus representation connected the screen the iconically scary one.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Maybe it’s a cop-out to see a representation publication successful this list, but this one’s screen truly does a batch of work. With the postulation light, we are instantly placed successful an municipality setting, a uncommon show successful representation books erstwhile this was published. Meanwhile, the kid looking astatine his caller footprints successful the snowfall evokes the consciousness of wonderment snowy days create. Creating magic retired of the mean is thing children are truthful bully at, and this classical publication celebrates that. 

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Talk astir the enactment betwixt symptom and pleasure. This screen photograph by Peter Hujar is titled “Orgasmic Man,” successful lawsuit you were wondering what’s truly going on. Devoid of that context, it genuinely is intolerable to accidental what the idiosyncratic connected this screen is experiencing. Hanya Yanagihara’s books are for readers who, counterintuitively, bask books that volition destruct them, truthful this representation couldn’t beryllium much appropriate.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 

A Farewell to Arms was the archetypal enactment of fabrication to beryllium fixed the Penguin paperback treatment, and the iconic presumption of this plan is rather undeniable. Only the wide fabrication successful the bid was orange, but that colour surely eclipsed the purple of essays and the greenish of transgression novels, etc. Edward Young created the design, including the archetypal penguin logo. That penguin has undergone changes implicit the years, and my idiosyncratic favourite has a small rotation of pudge and a jaunty ft successful the air. What makes these covers truthful iconic is their collectability. They were colour coded and numbered, making them thing you wanted to enactment up connected a support alternatively than discard.

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy 

This publication made a immense splash, partially owed to its brash title, and I deliberation besides partially owed to this genius screen plan by Faye Orlove. The pastel colors and square-within-a-square plan telephone up a nostalgia for ’90s books. It’s a small Baby-Sitters Club, a small Judy Blume. The aforesaid mode radical person nostalgia for iCarly. But the rubric undercuts that wholesome vibe entirely. The pinkish urn and Jennette’s bemused, indifferent look is icing connected a messed up cake. Truly unforgettable.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This cover, by Greg Stadnyk, uses birds to correspond Red and Blue, the time-traveling spies successful this epistolary novella. They’re organic, but besides a small glitchy. What a cleanable mode to amusement that adjacent successful a futuristic clip war, the quality tendency to emotion and beryllium loved cannot beryllium denied. The screen is distilled to lone these 2 characters, with nary inheritance detail, the mode this novella takes specified an expansive discourse to trade an intimate story.

Face Of An Angel by Dorothy Eden

As a die-hard person of gothic literature, I had to see a “women moving from houses” screen connected the database of iconic publication covers. It’s hard to take a azygous screen to encapsulate this trend, truthful I picked 1 screen that includes galore of the important features. This one, by Lou Marchetti, features a flowing achromatic gown, a creepy castle/manor, and a conspicuously phallic turret with its airy on. There are truthful galore chaotic and fantastic variations connected this theme, and we person different artists, including Victor Prezio, Elaine Duillo, Robert McGinnis, Walter Popp (no relation), George Ziel, Charles Geer, Renato Fratini, Allan Kass, and Harry Bennett, among others, to thank.

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

It’s uncommon for nonfiction publication covers to get a batch of love, truthful let’s amusement immoderate for this one, designed by Bookbright Media. As the writer states successful the book, “thick” is simply a descriptor successful sociology to mean that a statement is fixed plentifulness of discourse to situate it. The screen shows the different meaning of thick, with that wide H forming thing similar a torso whose fig is not an hourglass. It implies we volition so beryllium examining bodies and quality standards. Thick is simply a enactment by a Black writer whose enactment engages with contention a lot. The stark achromatic colour centers that Blackness. Lastly, the handwriting look of the subtitle and author’s sanction lend a idiosyncratic touch, letting america cognize not to expect stodgy world prose.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Of people Frankenstein has received countless covers implicit the years, immoderate of them iconic successful their ain right. But I chose this 1 to admit the astonishing epoch of pulp covers. The aboriginal days of the pulp paperback included reprints of classical titles successful cheaper editions. And plentifulness got pulped-up covers that were, similar this one, a small misleading astir the content. This creation benignant is undeniably striking. While I couldn’t find the creator of this peculiar cover, immoderate artists known for their pulped classical covers are James Avati, Mitchell Hooks, Charles Binger, Ken Riley, Stanley Meltzoff, and Tom Dunn.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

I deliberation this publication cover, designed by Ben Wiseman, is iconic for akin reasons that I’m Glad My Mom Died is iconic. They some telephone to an full genre of lit with their screen design. Unlike I’m Glad My Mom Died, however, this 1 embraces alternatively than subverts that genre. Giving the rubric and the author’s sanction astir adjacent existent property connected the screen calls up dishy books by authors similar Jackie Collins, Judith Krantz, and Danielle Steel. The author’s sanction is meant to archer much astir what you’re successful for than the rubric does. With this screen design, Kevin Kwan joins the ranks of authors you subordinate with breezy but gripping poolside reading. This publication promises to beryllium rife with excess, drama, and plentifulness of name-dropped manner brands.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Okay, truthful John Carter, the protagonist of this book, ne'er took disconnected arsenic a cinematic franchise the way, say, Star Wars has. But archer me, however bash we adjacent person Star Wars without publication covers similar this? Anyone who’s lusted aft Princess Leia successful the golden bikini tin convey creator Frank Frazetta. The mode this 1970 screen blends sword and sorcery imagery with outer abstraction imagery, successful a pulpy style, sets a ocular modular for an adventurous benignant of sci-fi. And you cognize a publication screen is iconic erstwhile the archetypal lipid coating sells for $1.2 cardinal astatine auction!

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

The hardcover merchandise of Shatter Me had a screen that was a small generic, if I’m honest. It was a miss successful the gown, not hard to find successful YA fantasy, successful 2011. This paperback screen features creation by Colin Anderson, inspired by a photograph by Sharee Davenport and screen plan by Cara E. Petrus. Now we’re talking. Eyes are reliable for grabbing attention, featured connected truthful galore of these covers. This oculus motif carries into the remainder of the covers for the series, making them a cohesive and arresting set. But past the details propulsion you in. Mafi’s usage of strikethroughs, arsenic seen connected the cover’s tagline, creates an instant turbulence challenging readers to observe the information for themselves.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I don’t deliberation this screen is iconic due to the fact that everyone reads this publication successful precocious school. It’s iconic connected its ain merit, embodying the melancholy jazz property benignant recovered successful the book. Francis Cugat designed the cover, and helium was a existent one-hit wonderment successful this field, arsenic this was the lone publication helium designed successful his career. Fitzgerald describes Daisy arsenic a “girl whose disembodied look floated on the acheronian cornices and blinding signs.” Turns out, helium whitethorn person been inspired to constitute that by receiving aboriginal versions of the screen earlier the publication was complete. It surely would explicate however the substance and screen are truthful perfectly integrated.