• Write a Comment
• Related Blog Posts
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Facebook

Paul Bacon is a legendary graphic designer and illustrator. He was responsible for many famous LP covers for Riverside and Blue Note in the 1950s before he turned to illustrating book jackets.

In the words of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Art), "In the late 1950's Bacon invented the bestseller book jacket, as we know it. Catch-22, Portnoy's Complaint, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest—his jackets are bold, resolutely commercial, and genre-defining."

Paul Bacon designed covers for Ernest Hemingway, Eric Ambler, Nobel-Prize winner William Golding, Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, E.L. Doctorow, Phillip Roth—all the best authors from the 60's on. It was Paul who invented the idea of bold, classy covers that helped vault sometimes indifferent books into best-seller status.

In all, Paul designed over 7,000 book jackets. Some of the covers he created include fZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Taylor Caldwell's Great Lion of God, Robin Cook's Coma, and Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain. He also created jackets for books by Margaret Atwood, Louis Auchicloss, Noel Behn, Paul Bowles, Robert Caro, John Cheever, James Clavell, Harry Crews, E. L. Doctorow, Frederick Forsyth, Arthur Hailey, Jack Higgins, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Henry Kissinger, Ira Levin, Meyer Levin, Robert Ludlum, Norman Mailer, Ed McBain, S. J. Perelman, Mario Puzo, Georges Simenon, William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Wambaugh, and more.

A fan of classic jazz, Bacon occasionally sang and played comb a la Red McKenzie from the late 40s on purely for the fun of it. He was regularly featured on a number with Bob Greene's "World of Jelly Roll Morton" in 1974, and in the early 1990s performed at Cajun, a New York jazz club. Bacon recorded an enjoyable set for Jazzology in 1996. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

Paul Bacon still illustrates, designs, and sings in a New York jazz club.

Paul Bacon is a legendary graphic designer and illustrator. He was responsible for many famous LP covers for Riverside and Blue Note in the 1950s before he turned to illustrating book jackets. In the words of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Art), "In the late 1950's Bacon invented the bestseller book jacket, as we know it. Catch-22, Portnoy's Complaint, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nes... More