Judging the Book by Its Cover
Penguin’s new trade paperbacks capture the tone Dutch deserves
In 2009 HarperCollins began an ambitious project to publish all of Dutch’s novels in trade paperback, a sign they were ready to move him from the mass market to the literary shelf—where he belonged.. I was excited. Finally, the novels would be brought together in a a proper series design. There was a chance—maybe—for something bold, even cool, worthy of the writing contained within.
That excitement didn’t last.
What the art department produced instead was a steady string of dull, templated covers that did not do the books justice. They were corporate, cautious, forgettable. These covers missed the tone, the humor, the voice. They told you nothing. They promised nothing.
The type treatment sucked. The covers screamed at you with bold, oversized lettering of the author’s name and title. Penguin did the opposite. Their titles and set in a typewriter font, quiet, understated, and sly. It doesn’t shout. It suggests. It trusts the reader to lean in.
Penguin UK has done what HarperCollins failed to do.
The new British editions don’t just look good—they reflect the spirit of the work. The Westerns—Valdez Is Coming, Last Stand at Saber River, Hombre & Three-Ten to Yuma—are stark and mythic. The crime novels—Rum Punch, Swag, The Switch, City Primeval, The Hunted, Cat Chaser, 52 Pickup, Picket Line and Other Stories—are stylish, funny, dangerous. Every cover gives you an image or a metaphor that draws you in, even if you’ve never read a word of Elmore Leonard. A feather. A revolver. A chalk outline. A silhouette. You feel something. You’re curious.
That’s what a book cover is supposed to do.
Dutch and I tried to steer HarperCollins toward better ideas. We gave them concepts that reflected the material, that had attitude and edge. They rejected them all.
It wasn’t always like this. Back in 1998, Dell and Morrow hired Chip Kidd to repackage some of Dutch’s backlist in trade paperback as well as hardcover. Kidd’s covers were gritty and loud—black-and-white photography, oversized distressed type, bold title treatments. Maximum Bob. Stick. LaBrava. Bandits. Rum Punch. They looked like something. You didn’t know exactly what, but they stood out and drew you in.
The Detroit Free Press’s Linnea Lannon ran a column at the time praising the redesign: “A new Elmore Leonard? No, it just looks like it.” Exactly. That was the whole point.
These weren’t safe covers. They had personality. They had nerve. And they matched the books.
Penguin shows Dutch’s books can be packaged with brilliance. That smart design doesn’t require compromise. And that someone—finally—read the books before slapping on a cover.