Best Book Covers: Part 1

It's always nice to be holding a good book in your hands. Like Catcher in the Rye. But it's even nicer if the book has a great cover as, in my opinion, it adds so much to the experience of reading!

So I decided to start tracing best book covers that are out there - from that that are just 'cool' to those that are considered iconic at this point.

I'll start with my first list of the most famous book covers of all times. And indeed, I can't argues with that - without ever having any of the following editions, I easily recognize them.

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. The cover was designed for the book's first edition in 1951 by E. Michael Mitchell, an illustrator and Salinger's friend. It is one of the most recognized book covers. The first edition with the author's autograph is considered to be the rarest bibliophilic artifact. 

A Farewell to Arms by E. Hemingway. This is the first edition, 1929. The design was made on a jacket and the book itself looked way simpler.   

Another novel by E. Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, also known as Fiesta. This is the cover for the first edition (1926). As you can see, both covers were design in the style of art nouveau.

Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland. This book is famous for its creative covers and also for having billions and billions of them. This particular one is from 1900-1901, but I personally like this by H. Altemus Company (1895) more.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. The design of the cover was made by a famous illustrator Paul Hogarth who worked a lot with Pinguin. This interpretation of his of a classical shakespearean comedy is considered quite rare. 

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. Penguin always has awesome ideas for book covers (this one is from Signet Classics Series), and sometimes, they say, they steal those ideas. Or other steal from them, who knows. Look at this edition of The Great Gatsby from Compact Books (a British publishing house), and compare the two covers yourself.