This ground-breaking meticulous study deals with the creative explosions of book cover designs in Victorian Britain from 1830 to 1880. New technical developments during this time provided many practitioners such as Owen Jones, Walter Crane and John Leighton the means to attempt wide experimentation, and at the same time, brake new ground in artistic style.
Edmund King, Head of the Newspaper Archives at the British Library, describes and indexes over 750 books with great detail. A main focus for King was to concentrate on cover designs by artists who signed their work or were known to be responsible for the cover. Many covers are beautifully illustrated in full color or black and white.