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Dust Jackets

The Books Beneath the Jackets

FPCI

Dust jackets were nothing more than a marketing device. For some reason, somebody in the upper echelon of the publishing house (probably in the Sales Department) didn't want to release the book with the current cover ... or they wanted to change something (like the price). After the wrapper (cover) of the book had already been attached, there were very few options. Elsewhere on the BookScans website, you can see how some publishers applied various stickers to the covers of books to change a price or draw attention to something, like a movie tie-in.

You'll see several good reasons for those changes as you peruse this section. Penguin 276, for example, was a British book that included the New York address only on the jacket (Ian Ballantine's apartment was that New York address). #659 was the last Penguin, as far as collectors are concerned. Many reprints bore the Signet name. So here, you'll see several Signet dust jackets for original Penguin book numbers. These later Penguin dust jackets show how desperately the American management wanted more graphic cover art. Many Penguins were later re-released as Signets.

The Cardinal dust jacket above was physically attached (glued) to Pocket Book 757 (at least part of the first printing, as well). Pocket Book glued most of their dust jackets. Many unknowing collectors have ruined books trying to get them off (they obviously thought someone else had attached the DJ to the book).

Several digest-sized books had jackets ... I'm not really sure why. Maybe they just wanted them to look more like regular hardcover books. The "Seal Books" (Blue Seal, Red Seal & Gold Seal) were good examples.

Bantam certainly wins the prize for the most dust jackets among mass market books. Several were attached to Penguin S-series and Superior Reprint books that Ballantine took with him when he left Penguin. Other books bore jackets that greatly improved the cover art.

Many thanks to contributors. Fred Meyerriecks scanned his DJ collection for me (I already had many of them, but Fred's are in superb condition). Several scans are from Moe Wadle.

NOTE: Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc (FPCI), was a strange  case. Rather than repeat things, I suggest you visit that page in my "Oddities" section HERE. The run of covers and dust jackets that I've collected (or obtained scans for) is covered extensively in the DIGESTS section of BookScans. It also contains an index of the books, compiled by Robert Gaines. That link in the left column will take you there.

This page was updated in August 2022