Monday, January 30, 2012

The Evolution of a Book's Design: Toni Morrison's "Beloved"

 Which books do you love despite their unattractive cover design? 
I've always been a big fan of Toni Morrison's books -- but always slightly disappointed with the book design. My first experience with Morrison's lyrical prose was "Beloved," for an English class as an undergrad.

I remember dismissing the book outright by the look of its uninspiring cover (granted, this was published in the late 80s) but afterward, reading it twice more, then buying more of Morrison's other books. Her prose is, simply put -- beautiful and often moved me to tears. I would finish reading a book and then look at the cover and think, this is the best they could come up with?

Over the years, the book cover has been redesigned numerous times, and I'm rather loathe to admit that my favorite one is the book cover based off of the Oprah Winfrey movie (and I HATE when books are re-released after a movie is made with a cover based off of the movie), but it is much more compelling than the other ones.

(this is the cover of the book I read in college)



(this is my favorite cover -- and the cover promoting the Oprah Movie)



(this one is just UGLY)

(this one seems like a re-design of the original)