The Great Gatsby Book Covers Over the Years Visual Literacy Practice and An Evaluation of Effectiveness

The Original The painting for the original printing of The Great Gatsby was created by Francis Cugat and titled “Celestial Eyes”. Fitzgerald liked it so much that he said he used it as inspiration in his story (i.e. he actually used aspects of the painting in the story).

The Original From Smithsonian.com: (“Celestial Eyes” is…) “Evocative of sorrow and excess, this haunting image has become so inextricably linked to The Great Gatsby that it still adorns the cover of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece 88 years after its debut. Publisher Charles Scribner notes that its origin is somewhat unusual in that the cover art was designed before the manuscript was finished, resulting in a sort of collaboration between the artist and writer that may have yielded one of the more prominent literary symbols in American literature.”

The Original – Cugat’s Early Sketches

The Original In a letter to editor Max Perkins, Fitzgerald requested that the artwork be held for him for the novel. “For Christ’s sake don’t give anyone that jacket you’re saving for me,” Fitzgerald wrote, “I’ve written it into the book.” In what ways might this be the case? What connections to the story do you see in the painting?

Note The Details

Note The Details

Note The Details

Our Activity Today You & your partner will be assigned a book cover (all of which, I believe, are fan-made). You will analyze the cover by responding to the following questions (so take a picture of this slide): Describe the cover art/graphic/photograph and all the various arrangement of elements. What is the thinking in creating the book cover the way your artist did? What scenes/characters/elements from the story is your cover depicting (could be symbolically or a literal representation)? Explain thoroughly. What do you like about the cover? On the other hand, what doesn’t work well with your cover? Is your cover better than the original painting by Cugat? Argue why or why not.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

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Group 7