"The Golden Age of American Publishers’ Decorated Cloth Book Covers
For a brief twenty years as the 19th turned into the 20th century, Americans were often beguiled, entertained, and sometimes dazzled by the attractively designed and often gold-laden covers of the books that they read. In a period when art was breaking from academy-bound tradition in search of new directions, publishers realized as never before that to sell a book, you needed an attention-getting book cover.
Among the hundreds of artists who designed these covers, one stood above the rest. Scribner’s, Putnam’s, and Dodd Mead were among the publishers vying for the talents of Margaret Armstrong. Her inventive, elegant, and beautifully colored designs and lettering were self-identifying; they hardly needed the tiny monogram that she often added to her designs. During her career, she would design over 300 book covers and decorate the pages of many books with her drawings. Her art would become visible in the libraries and on the parlor tables of thousands of American homes. In time, this relatively unheralded period of American publishing history would be rediscovered. Today, examples of Margaret Armstrong’s work are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yet Margaret Armstrong, a descendant of famous Americans, a highly successful literary figure in her later years, but most importantly the pre-eminent artist of the book cover in her time, remains unknown to the general public." - Description from Black Dome Press website
Emma Redington (Lee) Thayer (ca. 1874-ca. 1973) was the co-founder of Decorative Designers, a New York City based firm that produced binding designs, dust jackets, book illustrations, and advertising material. She specialized in conventionalized decorations and designed most of the bindings, did some lettering, and was successful at dust jacket illustrations. She also published over sixty mystery novels as well as children's books. The collection consists of material related to the work of Lee Thayer and the Decorative Designers (DD) including correspondence, taped interviews, articles and newsclippings related to the life and career of Thayer, dust jackets and novels by Thayer, and photocopied bookplate designs, binding designs, and dust jackets by DD.
From the collection description:
"The Collection of British Novels, circa 1890-1920 consists of over 1,204 single-volume novels and short story collections by British and Empire writers, published in the United Kingdom from the 1890s through the 1920s. The collection features a wide range of the period’s popular fiction genres, including adventure novels, fictions of empire, historical novels, mysteries, romance fiction, thrillers, and comedies of manners. The collection was put together by Jarndyce Booksellers, an antiquarian book dealer specializing in 18th and 19th century English literature and history."
The bindings designed by Clarence were mostly unsigned, and attribution for them has typically been achieved via the matching advertising posters for the same book.
In 1906, Peck married British-born illustrator John Scott Williams (1877–1975)...Peck and Williams shared similar styles, leading the two to occasionally collaborate on illustrations together. These works were signed with the first initials of their last names, "P W". Some of Peck's works are also credited as Clara Elsene Williams and the press sometimes referred to her as "Mrs. John Scott Williams". (From Wikipedia Article about Clara Elsene Peck)
Charles Ricketts (1866-1931), artist, book designer, collector, art critic, set and costume designer & Charles Shannon (1863-1937), lithographer, painter and art collector : a weekly blog written by Paul van Capelleveen
Copeland was more of an illustrator than a cover designer, and he didn't seem to sign his cover designs with any sort of monogram. In general he signed his illustrations as "Copeland".
Falls signed his work with a few variants of a single F monogram, which was placed on the front covers.
He was part of the Decorative Designers firm and also did freelance work from 1902 to 1913.
The Charles Buckles Falls papers include documentation of the life and work of the American artist, including original drawings, proofs, and printed exemplars of his posters and illustrations. The papers also include correspondence and drafts of poetry by Falls.
The Carlton Illustrators or Carlton Studio was a commercial art firm founded by Albert Angus Turbayne. Thomas Garland Greene, Normal Price, William Wallace and Archibald Abernathy Martin were early members. A.A. Martin and William Tracy Wallace were listed as 'managing' artists in a later portfolio advertising the work of the Carlton Illustrators. Their offices were located over the years at both the Flatiron Building (originally named the Fuller Building), in NYC, and at 195 Strand in London.
The members of the firm included at various times Arthur C. Goode, Alfred Garth Jones, Norman Mills Price, Harold Nelson, Ernest Wallcousins, Frederick Gardner, Frank Edmund Wiles and Stanley Davis.