Judging covers

The Great Fires by Jack Gilbert

A story:

I was at a book fair in Chicago and one of the panels featured comics artists, including Chip Kidd. Chip Kidd may have designed some of your favorite book covers. I happened to notice that he had done the cover for Jack Gilbert’s The Great Fires, a book I also happened to have in my bag with me.

After the panel I went up to him and said, “Will you sign my book cover?” He laughed and did so and said, “This was an interesting one. I have a light board I use for cover design with four lights in it. I was setting up my camera and took some test pictures of the light box and when I saw them later I played around with them a little and ended up with this. It’s just my light box with some papers on top.”

I could be totally misremembering, but that was the gist. Before hearing it, I had thought that it was maybe street lights with the contrast cranked up, but knowing that story, I like it much better when paired with Gilbert’s poems. The way they illuminate from within, as it were.

The choice to have that become the cover was also striking when taken with all of Kidd’s more elaborate designs. Even without that story, it’s one of my favorite covers.

Also the poems in the book are, you know, very very good.

All right. That’s all. Carry on.