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I sent the following to Shannon but thought the membership at large migyht also be interested in the subject:
 
    Some years ago I purchased at a book fair a collection of approximately 350 book jackets from the 1940s representing various U.S. publishers.  The odd thing was that these were flat and unfolded.  I still wonder how this collection came to be formed.  I made a list of all the jacket designers whose names I could find credit for and did a bit of research on this subject.
 
    There was a Book Jacket Designers Guild which held three annual exhibitions at the A.D. Gallery in New York, in 1948, 1949 and 1950, and published small illustrated catalogues for each (I have two of them).  In their How to Do It Series, the Studio also published the following:

Curl, Peter. Designing a Book Jacket. London & NY: Studio Publications, [1956].

The following book also has much useful information:

Weidemann, Kurt, ed. Book Jackets & Record Sleeves: An International Survey. NY & Washington: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, [c1969]

I have a number of other references, but these are a start.

I think the 1940s and 1950s represent a "Golden Age" of American book jacket design, although jackets from the 1920s and 1930s are also interesting.  The British publishers have always impressed me with the tastefulness of their jacket designs.  Many of their best known artists and printmakers were involved in the whole process of book design, such as John Piper, Paul Nash, E. McKnight Kauffer (an American expatriate in Britain) and others.

I still have the collection of jackets and will probably include them in a forthcoming catalogue on Modern Graphic design.

Ray Smith / R.W. Smith Bookseller (New Haven)