Faber and Faber

Eighty Years of Book Cover Design  1929–2009

This display celebrates the 80th anniversary of Faber and Faber, one of the great remaining independent publishing houses in London. It was born in 1929 out of Faber & Gwyer, which had been founded in 1925 by Geoffrey Faber, T.S. Eliot and Richard de la Mare.

Responsibility for book production and design fell to de la Mare. His taste and originality established an unmistakable style at a time when only a few London publishers were conscious of book design.

This commitment to design continued under the direction of David Bland and Berthold Wolpe, whose lettered and typographic jackets became identified with the Faber imprint. On Wolpe's retirement in 1975, design continued under the direction of Shirley Tucker until 1980, when the design partnership Pentagram took on responsibility for jackets, covers and publicity material.

The books on display are from the Faber Archive Library.