15 Rad Reader-Designed Covers for Classic Books
While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Monday, January 6th.
This post originally ran June 6, 2013.
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One of the coolest things I saw at Book Expo America was a project called Recovering the Classics, which is a collaboration of the Creative Action Network and DailyLit. These awesome folks identified 50 of the best books that are in the public domain (meaning they’re not longer under copyright) and invited readers to design their own new covers. Then they make the newly covered books available for purchase as ebooks or as paperbacks printed on the Espresso Book Machine at Harvard Bookstore. This project? It’s turning cool up to eleven.
Let’s take a look at some of the new covers, shall we? These are some of my favorites–there are TONS to explore at Recovering the Classics.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, cover by Roberlan Borges
The Collected Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, cover by Adam S. Doyle
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, cover by Corbet and Curfman
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, cover by Luis Prado
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, cover by Louise Norman
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, cover by Ashley Cale
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, cover by Wade Greenberg
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, cover by Lia Marcoux
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, cover by Elena Ospina
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, cover by Black Dwarf Designs
I couldn’t decide between these two takes on Persuasion by Jane Austen.
And this one is by Kathryn Delaney.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, cover by MrFurious
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, cover by Jon Cain
And another H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds, cover by Kjell Roger Ringstad
Visit Recovering the Classics to see more awesome designs, buy books, and contribute your own new covers. Tell me: which do you like best?
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