What was the state of book jacket design at the time?
Frank: Well, from the perspective of someone coming from advertising, I can certainly say this: Books didn’t know how to sell themselves. Book jacket design was not emphasized in most art schools, and it was not a priority in book publishing. In those days, the term for a cover was “dust jacket.” Indeed, that was all a jacket was meant to do: protect a book on the shelf. The covers produced by most American publishers, including S&S, were lacking in graphic design, incapable of generating excitement. Colors were drab. Any attention to typography was governed by editors and devoid of artistic input. Many book collectors simply threw jackets away or tucked them inside the book. I wanted to rise to the challenge, bring my ideas to the forefront. There was a revolution going on in paperbacks. Paperbacks had been produced in Europe since the 1800s, but in 1940 a race was on to beat the established prices. An American, Robert Fair de Graff, revolutionized the industry: He began publishing bo
