Mark Dery

Time has not dimmed the appalling (and ultimately soporific) evil tucked into the pages of a book so noxious that no book jacket will ever do it justice.

The artistically eclectic author talks about his fiction, the importance of a visual imagination, and how hard it is to get decent artwork on a book jacket.

Before the Nazis took over, the Weimar republic played host to all kinds of innovative art that pervaded the culture, right down to the designs on book jackets.

Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ was the most famous of the Pocket Poets series published by City Lights Press, but those striking looking little books changed the course of American lit.

The sleek, no-frills esthetic of Modernism and the gray-flannel ’50s both influenced the utilitarian mindset that dictates the rules of usage in ‘The Elements of Style.’

Famous for his droll, macabre illustrations and stories, nearly all in black and white, Edward Gorey was also a master of color, as he proved repeatedly with his book jacket designs.

In the first installment of a series celebrating book cover art and design, Mark Dery introduces the ’50s sci fi mash-ups (Dali meets Asimov) of the extraordinary Richard Powers.