You Pick BestYouPickBest

The 19 Most Iconic Book Covers in American Literature

By YPB Team

Some jackets sold the book; a few outlived the novel inside. Pick the one your eye trusts first.

  1. The Great Gatsby — ranked #11
    The Great Gatsby
    Francis Cugat's 1925 Celestial Eyes jacket, the disembodied gaze over a carnival skyline that Fitzgerald said he wrote into the book.
    1000pts
  2. The Catcher in the Rye — ranked #22
    The Catcher in the Rye
    E. Michael Mitchell's 1951 carousel horse, later stripped back to the bare maroon cover with rainbow lettering.
    936pts
  3. Moby-Dick — ranked #33
    Moby-Dick
    Rockwell Kent's stark black-and-white whale illustrations for the 1930 Lakeside Press edition set the template for every jacket since.
    759pts
  4. Invisible Man — ranked #44
    Invisible Man
    Edward McKnight Kauffer's 1952 design for Ellison's novel, a faceless head dissolving into flat color.
    542pts
  5. Slaughterhouse-Five — ranked #55
    Slaughterhouse-Five
    The 1969 Delacorte jacket for Vonnegut's Dresden novel, its title arched around the subtitle The Children's Crusade.
    542pts
  6. Blood Meridian — ranked #66
    Blood Meridian
    The 1985 Random House jacket for McCarthy's scalp-hunting western, a small desert vignette on dark red.
    478pts
  7. The Bell Jar — ranked #77
    The Bell Jar
    The hardcover jacket for Plath's only novel, a pale figure caught in the dark.
    478pts
  8. The Sound and the Fury — ranked #88
    The Sound and the Fury
    The jacket for Faulkner's Compson novel, a crouched figure under a red title banner.
    404pts
  9. The Grapes of Wrath — ranked #99
    The Grapes of Wrath
    Elmer Hader's 1939 jacket of the Joads' loaded truck crawling toward California.
    404pts
  10. The Old Man and the Sea — ranked #1010
    The Old Man and the Sea
    Hemingway's last published novel, the 1952 Scribner first edition in blue cloth with the author's portrait on the jacket.
    319pts
  11. Beloved — ranked #1111
    Beloved
    The 1987 Knopf jacket for Morrison's Pulitzer winner, red and green type on bare white.
    319pts
  12. In Cold Blood — ranked #1212
    In Cold Blood
    The 1965 Random House jacket for Capote's nonfiction novel, its title set huge and cold over the Kansas killings.
    319pts
  13. Infinite Jest — ranked #1313
    Infinite Jest
    Michael Ian Kaye's 1996 cloudscape wrapping over a thousand pages, the sky that became shorthand for the whole novel.
    319pts
  14. On the Road — ranked #1414
    On the Road
    The 1957 Viking jacket for Kerouac's road novel, a small abstract painting alone on black.
    217pts
  15. Catch-22 — ranked #1515
    Catch-22
    Paul Bacon's 1961 cut-paper airman dangling on a string above the title, one of the most copied jackets in publishing.
    217pts
  16. A Farewell to Arms — ranked #1616
    A Farewell to Arms
    The 1929 Scribner jacket by Cleonike Damianakes, whose classical nude figures scandalized booksellers as much as the novel did.
    217pts
  17. Fahrenheit 451 — ranked #1717
    Fahrenheit 451
    Joseph Mugnaini's 1953 burning-man cover, a figure made of newsprint going up in flames.
    217pts
  18. To Kill a Mockingbird — ranked #1818
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    Shirley Smith's 1960 jacket with the tree, the knothole and the small bird silhouette over Maycomb.
    96pts
  19. The Sun Also Rises — ranked #1919
    The Sun Also Rises
    Cleon's 1926 art-deco jacket of a seated woman with an apple, Hemingway's debut novel dressed as a Jazz Age poster.
    96pts

#usa291#books87#classics474#design12

Nobody has rated this ranking yet. Vote first, then say whether the ranking was worth it.

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first!

0/1000
Make your own rankingAny question with 2–50 answers. AI fills in options and pictures in a minute.Create →Add rankings to your siteEmbed any ranking. Your readers vote right on your page.How it works →