Judging By The Cover: Classically Beautiful Books

While strolling through the library’s shelves a few weeks ago I discovered a beautiful copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (FIC Ste). It was bound in green cloth like a classic novel from the 1800s or early 1900s and covered with foil-stamped parrots. Even though the book itself was published in 2009, it felt like a copy that could have been found in a Victorian mansion. I wanted to take it home and put it on my own bookshelves as a display piece. After discovering this book, I started keeping an eye out for other books like this in the collection. There were quite a few and I desperately wanted to make a display out of them, if for no other reason than the aesthetic joy of seeing a display that looks like it belongs in the library of a reclusive professor who spends too much money on beautiful books.

After scouring the library (literally book by book) I created a list of tomes that I deemed “Classically Beautiful”. Some really are classics like Treasure Island, Villette by Charlotte Bronte (FIC Bro), Les Miserable by Victor Hugo (FIC Hug), or Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (FIC Law). Some are local works with unique covers. For example, The Indiana Home by Logan Esarey (977.2 Esa) has a beautiful stamped design on the front.

Other books are much more modern. I highly recommend checking out the book Pew by Catherine Lacey (FIC Lac). The cover mimics a traditional cloth-bound novel, but in places it looks as if chunks have been ripped off, revealing bright silver foil below. This is a good representation of the story inside, in which a mysterious figure appears in a church in the American South. Genderless, racially ambiguous, and refusing to speak, no one in the small town knows what to do with “Pew.” They are shuttled from house to house and no one knows what to make of them. Are they an Angel? A Demon? Something else entirely? Their presence may just fracture the tiny community.

I also had to include one of my favorite books on this display, Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath (920.72 Por). While the golden gilded designs on the front are just printed on, it clearly looks like a book meant for royalty. Jason Porath is a former DreamWorks animator who drew animations for movies like The Croods, Kung Fu Panda 2, and How to Train Your Dragon 2. He has taken his illustrating talent and drawn a book of real historical women who were too uncompromising, too untoward, or too uncomfortable to fit into the modern princess mold, but who would make excellent heroines in their own right. This book is a fun read for children, teens, and adults. The rejected princesses are separated into chapters based on maturity level, so parents can make sure younger readers don’t discover some of the grisliest deeds of a few of the princesses, but adults can also learn the real history of some incredible women.

As you can see our Classically Beautiful display has a little bit of everything. So why not come in and judge a book by its cover for once? Pick out whatever catches your eye and give it a chance.

Emma Lashley is Library Assistant in the Reference and Local History Department at the Crawfordsville District Public Library.