Category: Michael Dirda

dust jackets and scientific romance

At Readercon in mid-July, the great delight was the panel / conversation with John Clute about dust jackets and the information they encode (in and out of science fiction), with examples from The Book Blinders (2024), my own collection, and the Clute Library at the Telluride Institute [click on things to see bigger pictures].

Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
Raid over England by Norman Leslie (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
Raid over England by Norman Leslie (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
Old Junk by H. M. Tomlinson (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
Old Junk by H. M. Tomlinson (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clute also talked about the Scientific Romance in interwar British publishing, with Michael Dirda, a good chat. His thesis in progress is outlined at the SFE, lots of interesting titles (most of them in the Telluride hoard), details here :
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/scientific_romance

The World Ends by William Lamb [Storm Jameson] (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
The World Ends by William Lamb [Storm Jameson] (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)

The Secret Voyage by A. Harcourt Burrage (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
The Secret Voyage by A. Harcourt Burrage (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
The Collapse of Homo Sapiens by P. Anderson Graham (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)
The Collapse of Homo Sapiens by P. Anderson Graham (dust jacket from the Clute collection, Telluride)