14: B. Traven, part I
July 12, 2010
This week we take a trip a little bit beyond the limits of my friends’ and my book collections. This is the first in a series of posts collecting the…
Channel
Judging Books by Their Covers
Judging Books by Their Covers is Josh MacPhee's ongoing series of writings and image collections of book covers. Although sometimes they feel marginal today, books have been a primary form of information and cultural exchange for almost 400 years. Book covers are often a person's first contact with the ideas inside, and in the hustle and bustle of contemporary life, cover designs are even more likely to shape the opinions of those that pick them up since many of us are too busy to ever read the entirety of the books. Judging Books by Their Covers largely focuses on—but is not exclusive to—the book covers and design coming out of the Left.
Josh is always looking for more book covers to feature. If you've got some gems he missed, or have ideas, drop him an email at josh (at) justseeds.org 
13: New World Paperbacks, Part II
July 5, 2010
Here’s part two of the New World Paperbacks series. I’ve only got a dozen different books on my shelf, but if anyone else out there has some more cool NWP…
12: New World Paperbacks, part I
June 28, 2010
The next couple weeks entries will be focused on the covers of New World Paperbacks, which was an imprint of the Communist Party, USA’s main publishing house International Publishers. I…
11: Dea Trier Mørch’s Den Indre By
June 21, 2010
This week I’m just going to focus on one book, and actually open the cover! For years I’ve been giving various versions of a talk and slideshow about political printmaking,…
10: Portuguese Modernism
June 14, 2010
I found this nice little collection of Portuguese modernist book covers in a friends academic office. They are from the 30s-60s. They designs are all hand painted, with the type…
9: Anarchist Books from Norway
June 7, 2010
A quick-y this week, here are three covers of Norwegian-published anarchist titles I found in the shelves at my friend Bergsveinn’s house in Bergen. The Kropotkin book is hilarious, with…
8: Cienfuegos Press, Part III
May 31, 2010
Here’s the last installment of the Cienfuegos/Costantini covers. Bits and pieces. This Tifft cover is one of the best in my opinion, the graphic is crisp and commanding, and the…
7: Cienfuegos Press, Part II
May 24, 2010
Here’s the second installment of Flavio Costantini covers for Cienfuegos Press. The five this week are a series of covers he did, each designed with the letter A (for Anarchy)…
6: Cienfuegos Press, Part I
May 17, 2010
For years I’ve been a fan of the look and feel of the Cienfuegos Press books published by Stuart Christie in the UK in the late 1970s-early 1980s. I stumbled…
5: Hebrew Modernism
May 10, 2010
Here’s a nice clutch of book covers from Hebrew volumes. Even though I took Hebrew school for a couple years, I mostly read comic books, so I have no idea…
4: Liberation Support Movement, Part III
May 3, 2010
Part 3 (and final part for now) of the covers of the Liberation Support Movement. This Sowing the First Harvest cover is quite nice, a striking block print (attributed to…
3: Liberation Support Movement, Part II
April 26, 2010
Part two of the covers from the LSM Information Network, some of these are less graphically powerful than last weeks, but there are still a couple gems. I particularly…
2: Liberation Support Movement, Part I
April 19, 2010
This week I want to share part one of a collection of book and pamphlet covers from the Liberation Support Movement (LSM), an organization that primarily did solidarity work with…
1: Novosti Press Agency
April 12, 2010
I’ve been really digging designing book covers of late, which has made me look much closer at all the other covers I come across and already have on my shelf….
Page 14 of 14