Classic Paperback Covers: 1,000-Piece Puzzle features Richard Baker’s realistic paintings of covers of classic paperback books from the 1960s and ’70s, across the literary canon. Each “book portrait” shows not only the original front cover in detail, but also signs of its passage through time—creases, worn bindings, and all.

The covers reflect sophisticated and complex taste. Even the well-known classics (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Old Man and the Sea, Swann’s Way, etc.) are surprising  because their covers aren’t widely known. The way the publishers chose to present their books can be quite surprising: it’s hardly an obvious choice to feature William Carlos Williams as the cover boy for his Selected Poems, and one can see a graphic designer throwing up their arms in defeat when trying to come up with an image for Susan Sontag’s Against Interpretation or Marx’s The Communist Manifesto. A few seemingly out-of -the-blue will keep the puzzler guessing and provide fodder for discussion: Tennessee Williams is the only author to be included twice (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire); Why Virginia Woolf’s The Years and not another of her novels?; What appealed to the artist about the cover of C. R. Dawes's The Marquis de Sade?

All in all, an original and intriguing puzzle.

The perfect gift for bibliophiles, collectors, lovers of ephemera, and those with an eye for graphic design.

25” x 20”