Skip to content

10 Websites for Vintage Books, Covers and Inspiration

1. A Journey Round My Skull — “Unhealthy book fetishism from a reader, collector, and amateur historian of forgotten literature.”

2. The Art of Penguin Science FictionA comprehensive collection of Penguin sci-fi covers from 1935 onwards.

3. BibliOdyssey“Books… Illustrations… Science… History… Visual Materia Obscura… Eclectic Bookart.”

4. Book (Design) Stories — Felix Wiedler’s incredible collection of modernist design and typography books from Germany and Switzerland 1925–1965.

5. Book Worship — “graphically interesting, but otherwise uncollectible, books that entered and exited bookstores quietly in the 50s, 60s, and 70s”.

6. I Was A Bronze Age BoyComic books, crime fiction and pulp magazines curated by Mark Justice. Awesome name. Awesome blog.

7. Killer Covers of the Week — Pulpy goodness and vintage crime fiction covers expertly curated The Rap Sheet‘s J. Kingston Pierce.

8. The Pelican ProjectThings Magazine‘s collection of Pelican paperbacks organized by decade.

9. Pop Sensation — Rex Parker appraises, critiques and generally ridicules his vintage paperback collection.

10. Spanish Book CoversSpanish pulp: detectives, masked gangsters, pin-ups, skeletons, and zombies! (French language)

AND BONUS! 11. French Book Covers — But not entirely safe for work… It’s French. You have been warned.

Let me know if I’ve missed any other great vintage book cover sites. AND  I’m working on a list of book cover related photostreams and groups on Flickr so please pass on your recommendations! Cheers.

modernist book design in germany and switzerland 1925–1965 (and beyond)

17 Comments

  1. Dan

    Thanks Will. I can only aspire to The Cas. Op being quite as good as A Journey Round My Skull! :-)

  2. awesome post, love the links, lots of new stuff to discover and think about!

  3. Thanks again Dan for this fantastic round-up! And your afterthought re: the Alvin Lustig archives duly noted. Have added this post of yours to StumbleUpon. :~)

    • Dan

      Thanks Amy! Alvin Lustig’s work is amazing. The site was on my original list but somehow got lost in the shuffle. Anyway I will try and get the list of Flickr pages posted ASAP! :-)

  4. I retweet stuff. I thought this was great. The only thing is, I try to be sort of “G-rated” or at least PG in case children are reading (not likely but possible) and I think a more explicit warning or hint about the French pornographie would be in order. You know, if you want to avoid the P-word, then something like “not suitable for children” or “x-rated” or something.

    • Dan

      Thanks for your comment Litbirthdays. I did say that the French Book Covers blog was not entirely safe for work! But I’m sorry if that was too reticent a warning. I will try and be more er… explicit about such things in future. Thanks again.

  5. […] Much linked to elsewhere, James Pardey (of the The Art of Penguin Science-Fiction site mentioned here) has new project on the Op-Art inspired Fontana Modern Masters book cover designs. He’s also […]

  6. […] by-the-numbers are the interview with designer David Pearson (which I totally get by the way!) and the list of inspirational vintage cover sites. It makes me curious who is visiting and […]

Comments are closed.