As I was perusing some book blogs this morning, I stumbled across this essay on The Millions about the process (and the mystery) of designing a book jacket. First-time novelist Sonya Chung writes that when it came time to offer input on the cover of her book, she didn’t know what to say other than that she didn’t want the cover to be too literal or to be a montage of fans, cranes, cherry blossoms and other stereotypical images associated with Asian culture. She loved image the book jacket designer sent to her – a woman taking a photograph of the horizon – but her friends had mixed reactions to it. In the post, she wonders how the cover of a book draws potential readers in, and whether it matters if the tone of the cover conveys accurately to readers the tone of the story inside.

Reading this blog reminded me of a conversation I had yesterday with one of the University of Nebraska Press’s authors. Bart Paul is the author of the forthcoming Double-Edged Sword, which is a biography of the gay American matador (and, for a time, close friend of Ernest Hemingway) Sidney Franklin. The cover of the book is a portrait of Sidney Franklin (complete with cape and bull) by painter Luis Quintanilla, who was also a friend of Hemingway. The portrait no longer exists: according to a Web site maintained by Quintanilla’s son, the artist was never satisfied with it and eventually cut the portrait in half and reused the canvas. But the painting was published in Town & Country Magazine in 1940, so it was not completely lost. And the forthcoming Franklin biography (to be published by the University of Nebraska Press in December) will prominently feature the painting on its cover – perhaps shedding a little bit of light on this nearly forgotten artist, as well as on his one-time subject.