Jacket and cover designs by Bill English
Most jackets are linked to a
Rex Warner
Lippincott, 1946
A. A. Avery
Bantam Books, 1946
Double Image
Arthur Herbert Bryant
Farrar, Straus, 1946
Image from the catalog, First Annual Exhibition of Book Jackets,
sponsored by the Book Jacket Designers Guild, 1948
Forlorn Sunset
Michael Sadleir
Farrar, Straus and Company, 1946
Arthur Herbert Bryant
Farrar, Straus, 1946
Image from the catalog, First Annual Exhibition of Book Jackets,
sponsored by the Book Jacket Designers Guild, 1948
Forlorn Sunset
Michael Sadleir
Farrar, Straus and Company, 1946
Image from the catalog, First Annual Exhibition of Book Jackets,
sponsored by the Book Jacket Designers Guild, 1948
Never Let Weather Interfere
Messmore Kendall
Farrar, Straus and Company, 1946
Night Fire
sponsored by the Book Jacket Designers Guild, 1948
Never Let Weather Interfere
Messmore Kendall
Farrar, Straus and Company, 1946
Night Fire
Edward Kimbrough
Rinehart & Co., 1946
Rinehart & Co., 1946
John Buchan
Bantam Books, 1946
January 1947
6. Bodoni types with a red band and one of gray-green. By Bill English.
(A jacket by English was reproduced in this issue.)
H. F. Heard
Vanguard Press, 1947
Anna Kavan
Doubleday and Co., 1947
What D’Ya Know for Sure, a 20th Century
Fox Literary Fellowship Novel
Fox Literary Fellowship Novel
Len Zinberg
Doubleday and Co., 1947
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1948
Meredith Willson
Doubleday & Company, 1948
The Aunt’s Story
Patrick White
Viking Press, 1948
Uneasy Street
Patrick White
Viking Press, 1948
Image from the catalog, Second Annual Exhibition of Book Jackets,
sponsored by the Book Jacket Designers Guild, 1949
Wade Mille
Farrar, Straus & Company, 1948
Wade Miller
Farrar, Straus, 1949
Dry Messiah: The Life of Bishop Cannon
Virginius Dabney
Alfred A. Knopf, 1949
May? 1949
…best, and still one of the simplest jackets we've seen for some time is the one Knopf have for Virginius Dabney’s “Dry Messiah: The Life of Bishop Cannon,” the famous prohibitionist. Bill English has taken the outstanding characteristics of the late and mostly unlamented Bishop and translated them into a pair of flaming eyes and a blue nose. With its white background, it’s an eye stopper, and we’ll bet it dominates any window that displays it.
Shirley Jackson
Farrar, Strauss, 1949
John Macdonald
Alfred A Knopf, 1949
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1949
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1949
Wade Miller
Farrar Straus, 1950
Cleve F. Adams
Alfred A. Knopf, 1950
John Ross MacDonald
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1950
Records: 1950 Edition
David Hall
Alfred A. Knopf, 1950
Hammond Innes
Alfred A Knopf, 1951
G. V. Desani
Farrar and Straus, 1951
Art Directors Club, 1951
245 — design of complete unit —
[Contraband]
[Contraband]
designer: Bill English
art directors: Bill English, Harry Ford
artist: Bill English
Herbert Gold
Viking Press, 1951
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1951
Theo Durrant
Alfred A. Knopf, 1951
Robert Merle
Alfred A. Knopf, 1951
January 1952
“Some Practical Notes on the Design and Creation of Book Jackets”, by Morris Colman, illustrated by work of Joseph Low, Alvin Lustig, Ludwig Bemelmans, Susan Foster, Bill English, Thomas Ruzicka, George W. Thompson, Ray Pederson, Philip Grushkin, Al Hirschfeld, George Maas, Edward Collins, Miriam Woods
Art Directors Club, 1952
268 Photographers: Bill English
Mariamne {English’s wife]
Art Director: R. A. Freiman
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Publication: “A Length of Rope”
Angus Wilson
Viking Press, 1952
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1952
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1952
Hubert Creekmore
Random House, 1953
Oakley Hall
Viking Press, 1953
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1953
A Man and Two Gods
Jean Morris
Viking Press, 1953
John Ross Macdonald
On the Road
Jack Kerouac
Viking Press, 1953
The Overloaded Ark
Gerald M. Durrell
Viking Press, 1953
The Stones of the House
Theodore Morrison
Viking Press, 1953
The Time of Indifference
Alberto Moravia
Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953
Jack Waer
Viking Press, 1954
1954
Hastings House develops ad art book program
Art director Harry Ford is using top professional designers for the covers. The first ten books will be done by Alvin Lustig, Leo Lionni, Joseph Low, George Salter, Bill English, Seymour Robbins, McKnight Kauffer, Antonio Frasconi and Harry...
Random House, 1954
(see AIGA Design Archives)
Binghamton Press
(New York)
October 31, 1954
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1954
Carnival by the Sea
Sigrid de Lima
Scribners, 1954
William Gibson
Alfred A. Knopf, 1954
George Harmon Coxe
Alfred A. Knopf, 1954
The Huge Season
Wright Morris
Viking Press, 1954
Phyllis McGinley
Viking Press, 1954
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1954
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1955
C. P. Snow
Scribners, 1955
Harvey Swados
Viking Press, 1955
Willy Ley
Viking Press, 1955
Angus Wilson
Viking Press, 1956
John Masters
Viking Press, 1956
C.P. Snow
Rex Stout
Graham Greene
Viking Press, 1956
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1956
The Anatomy Lesson
Evan S. Connell, Jr.
Viking Press, 1957
Angus Wilson
Viking Press, 1957
Warner Fite
Indiana University Press, 1957
John Masters
Viking Press, 1957
Bernard Wolfe
Alfred A. Knopf, 1957
Rex Stout
Jack Kerouac
The Sandcastle
Iris Murdoch
Viking Press, 1957
Robert Jungk
Harcourt Brace, 1958
Jack Kerouac
Viking Press, 1958
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1958
Hammond Innes
Alfred A. Knopf, 1958
Graham Greene
Viking Press, 1958
Pax
Middleton Kiefer
Random House, 1958
Hollis Alpert
Alfred A. Knopf, 1958
The Portable Henry James
Morton Dauwen Zabel, editor
Viking Press, 1958
D. H. Lawrence
Viking Press, 1958
Henry Slesar
Random House, 1959
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Alfred A. Knopf, 1959
Ruth Suckow
Viking Press, 1959
Nathalie Sarraute
Braziller, 1959
My Father and I
Joseph Schildkraut and Leo Lania
Viking Press, 1959
Jack Kerouac
Viking Press/Compass Books, 1959
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1959
Phyllis McGinley
Viking Press, 1959
The Sacred Mushroom
Andrija Puharich
Doubleday, 1959
James Wood
Vanguard, 1959
Diana Chang
Random House, 1959
The Ardent Years
Janet Stevenson
Viking Press, 1960
Pierre Boulle
Vanguard Press, 1960
Evan S. Connell Jr.
Viking Press, 1960
Hollis Alpert
Alfred A. Knopf, 1960
Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1960
Holly Roth
Random House, 1960
Graham Greene
Viking Press, 1961
Erle Stanley Gardner
Walter J. Black, 1961
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1961
Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place
Malcolm Lowry
Lippincott, 1961
Al Hine
Atheneum, 1961
The Man-Eater of Malgudi
R. K. Narayan
Viking Press, 1961
Angus Wilson
Viking Press, 1961
Iris Murdoch
Viking Press, 1961
Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1962
Iris Murdoch
Viking Press, 1962
Theodore Morrison
Viking Press, 1962
Rex Stout
The Unicorn
Iris Murdoch
Clarke Irwin, 1963
The Deep and the Past
David B. Ericson & Goesta Wollin
Alfred Knopf, 1964
Angus Wilson
Viking Press, 1964
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1964
Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1965
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1965
Under the Net
Iris Murdoch
Viking Press, 1965
Rex Stout
Viking Press, 1966
Calder Willingham
Vanguard, 1969
Vol. 3 No. 3, Fall 1980
…Bill English was mainly a hardcover artist but he did some wonderfully imaginative design for Bantam endpapers and covers. his endpaper map for “First Come, First Kill” (page 47 in PQ) is better than most Dell “mapbacks”!
By Its Cover: Modern American Book Cover Design
Ned Drew, Paul Sternberge
Princeton Architectural Press, 2005
English’s Encore jacket reproduced on page 59.
The Daily Heller
A few of the jackets are from this article.
*****
William Walters “Bill” English was born in Campbell, Missouri, on May 28, 1916. English’s full name and birth information was at Ancestry.com in the Social Security Application database. English’s full name was also used on his 1954 book, Basic Ballet. His parents were James R. English and Hazel Walters.
The 1920 U.S. Federal Census recorded English, his parents and older brother, James, in Hayti, Missouri. His father was a public school teacher.
Hapeville, Georgia was English’s home town in the 1930 census. His mother, a divorcee, was the head of the household which did not list James, but included twin sons, David and Charles. The family resided at 87 North Central Avenue.
Nothing is known about English’s education and art training. He made his way to New York City where he applied for his Social Security number in December 1936. It is not known if he was employed at a design firm or corporation.
So far, English’s earliest known jacket and book cover designs appeared in 1946.
English has not been found in the 1940 census. Ancestry.com has a number of Bridgeport, Connecticut city directories. English was listed in the “Artists—Commercial” category in the 1948 directory. His address was 1969 Cross Highway. The next available directory, from 1954, named English and his wife, Mariamne, who lived at 1023 Hulls Highway. When they married is not known. His occupations were artist and writer. The 1955, 1957 and 1962 directories had the same information. The listing in the 1972 directory said English was Vice President of Intercorp Inc. and lived at 101 Harbor Road.
Below is an excerpt from a 1963 Publishers Weekly article:
According to the Connecticut Death Index, English passed away March 27, 1980 in Kent, Connecticut. His spouse was Virginia; the date of their marriage is not known. English’s first wife, Mariamne English-King, passed away December 21, 2007 in Mohegan Lake, New York. English and Mariamne’s son, Timothy Gordon English, was mentioned in the magazine Broadcasting, December 17, 1990, on page 80, bottom of column two.Colophons or Devices: Old and NewMention has been made of Yale’s “foursquare” colophon, which was the brainchild of Alvin Eisenman, typographical consultant to the Press and a member of the Yale faculty, and “used to the hilt” (in the words of Chester Kerr, Yale’s director) “by Bill English.” (Bill English is head of the agency which handles Yale’s advertising, and he has been responsible for the look of most of the recent Yale ads—“a uniqueness of style which seems to suit our particular attitude toward scholarly publishing.
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Great Article
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