Collections
Books gathered around a theme or a series, one cover each. Every cover leads to the wall of the others we found.
Feminist Press
76 books
https://feministpress.org/
Ex Libris — covers by Hanspeter Wyss
58 books
From 1961 into the early 1980s the Swiss illustrator Hanspeter Wyss drew dust jackets for Ex Libris, the Zurich book club, and for Benziger: flat bright shapes, a crowd of houses, a skyline of crystals, a harlequin under an umbrella. Ex Libris kept no numbered series, so these follow Sammlung Keller's dates roughly, with the undated ones last. Some carry only type and an abstract figure, such as a target, a colour wheel or a grid.
Spektrum — Volk und Welt
16 books
Spektrum was a paperback series from Verlag Volk und Welt in East Berlin, 1968 to 1993, 279 titles, mostly stories and short novels by foreign authors. Its black jacket — author and title in white at the top, the word „Spektrum“ at the right and one black-grey-white image below, nearly all by Lothar Reher — gave it its nickname, the „black series“. Only the volumes Open Library holds pictures of.
Rivages/Noir
138 books
Rivages/Noir, the crime paperbacks of Éditions Rivages from 1986: a photograph or film still on black, with the title in white boxes. The wall shows numbers 1 to 200 where Open Library holds the series cover, in number order.
Haffmans — covers by Nikolaus Heidelbach
65 books
From the late 1980s the Zurich publisher Haffmans dressed its crime novels and much of its fiction in covers by Nikolaus Heidelbach: one strange, exactly painted object on black — a lipstick with a nail through it, a cigar, a swan with a red hood in its beak. These are the covers Sammlung Keller shows; Keller gives no titles, so they were read from the covers themselves.
suhrkamp taschenbuch — images
86 books
Suhrkamp’s paperback series in Willy Fleckhaus’s design of 1971: a coloured cover, author and title set large, and below them a small window. Here the window holds another picture: a drawing, a photograph, a painting, an emblem. One book per author, in series order, from the covers Open Library has.
Reihe Hanser — covers by Heinz Edelmann
102 books
Carl Hanser's paperback series of essays, poems and politics, begun in 1967 with Canetti's Die Stimmen von Marrakesch. Heinz Edelmann designed its yellow covers until the mid-1970s. Shown in the order of the volume numbers.
Jules Verne — covers by Heinz Edelmann
20 books
Fischer published Jules Verne in twenty paperback volumes from 1968, in new translations by Lothar Maier, and Heinz Edelmann designed the covers of the whole edition. Shown in the order of the volume numbers. The scans of nineteen volumes come from the Sammlung Keller (sammlungkeller.ch).
Hugo Award — best novel
75 books
SF Masterworks
73 books
The first, numbered run of the SF Masterworks (1999–2007): seventy-three science fiction novels that Millennium and Gollancz reprinted as classics of the genre, in the order of their numbers. Behind each cover is the wall of the other faces we found for the book.
SF Masterworks — the relaunch
182 books
In 2010 Gollancz gave the SF Masterworks a new face: the numbers went, the series name turned sideways and climbed the left edge of the cover, and the list kept growing — past the classics of the first run to newer books that had earned the name. This wall holds 182 of them in the order of the list, each in its relaunch design. Where ISFDB names the cover artist, the name is under the tile.
SF Masterworks — international relaunch covers
165 books
SF Masterworks — the rounded-corner editions (2006)
10 books
Heyne Bibliothek der Science Fiction Literatur
34 books
Heyne's „Bibliothek der Science Fiction Literatur“, edited by Wolfgang Jeschke from 1981 to 2001: about a hundred classics of the genre in the „white series“ — a white cover, the series header at the top and one square colour picture. Shown in series order, from the covers Open Library has in that design.
The Otherwise Award
40 books
https://otherwiseaward.org/
Fischer Bücherei — covers by Kurt Wirth
85 books
From the early 1950s to the late 1960s the Swiss graphic artist Kurt Wirth drew dozens of covers for the Fischer Bücherei, the paperback series with the coloured band and the three fish at the top. Cut paper, collage, brush and ink: a different picture for every book. These are the covers Sammlung Keller shows, in the order of their numbers.
edition suhrkamp
198 books
suhrkamp taschenbuch — author portraits
69 books
Suhrkamp’s paperback series in Willy Fleckhaus’s design of 1971: a coloured cover, author and title set large, and below them a small window. Here the window holds a portrait: of the author, or of the writer the book is about. One book per author, in series order, from the covers Open Library has.
Suhrkamp BasisBibliothek
59 books
Suhrkamp's BasisBibliothek, begun in 1998: literary works printed with a commentary for school and university, shown here in the order of their numbers.
Harry Potter — cover sets
175 books
Seven books, one design: each row is one Harry Potter edition as its publisher dressed it, from Bloomsbury's first children's covers and Mary GrandPré's American jackets to Jean-Claude Götting in France, Serena Riglietti in Italy, Sabine Wilharm in Germany, the photographic adult editions and Jonny Duddle's 2014 redesign. A set appears only when Open Library holds a front cover for each of its seven volumes.
The Lord of the Rings — cover sets
120 books
Most readers met The Lord of the Rings in three volumes, and each edition dressed the three books in one design. Each set here is one edition: from the Allen & Unwin jackets Tolkien designed in 1954 and Barbara Remington's Ballantine paperbacks of 1965 to Pauline Baynes, Darrell K. Sweet, John Howe and Alan Lee, the film and television tie-ins, and editions in French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese and Indonesian. A set appears only where Open Library holds a front cover of the same design for each volume; editions that reuse another edition's artwork are left out.
Bibliothek der Erinnerung
25 books
Memoirs and testimonies by people persecuted under National Socialism, edited by the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin and published by Metropol in Berlin since 1997, in the order of their volume numbers.
Fischer Bücherei
179 books
The Fischer Bücherei was S. Fischer's paperback series from 1952 to about 1970: over a thousand numbered volumes, a different picture on every cover. The first covers ran a picture over the whole front with the series name at the foot; from about 1962 a coloured band with the three fish sits at the top above a white title field. This wall shows the volumes whose series cover Open Library holds, in the order of their numbers, and names the designer where it is known for that printing.
Rowohlts Monographien
154 books
From 1958 Rowohlt published small paperback lives, each of one person told in their own words and in pictures — writers, composers, painters, philosophers, politicians. The classic cover is a portrait photograph tinted in one colour across the whole front, the name in a bar at the top and the little rororo box at the bottom. One book per person, in series order, from the covers Open Library has in that design.
Tolkien — covers by Heinz Edelmann
7 books
Heinz Edelmann designed the first German edition of The Lord of the Rings for Klett in 1969–70 and the covers that followed: the green paperbacks, the Hobbit Presse edition of 1980, Baum und Blatt.
Library of America
72 books
Volumes of the Library of America in Bruce Campbell’s jacket design: black, with a portrait of the author, the name in script and a red, white and blue band.
The Great American Novel
24 books
The Great American Novel is the old idea of one book that would catch the whole of the United States — its promise, its violence, its many voices. The phrase is from John William De Forest in 1868, and critics have argued ever since about which book, if any, comes closest. These are novels the Wikipedia article on the idea discusses as candidates, from The Last of the Mohicans to Underworld.
Verso Radical Thinkers — later
29 books
From set 4 in 2009, Verso's Radical Thinkers turned white, with author and title in one small line of serif type and a single thin line drawing across each cover.
Poésie/Gallimard
150 books
Gallimard's poetry paperbacks in Robert Massin's design from 1966, a white cover with a band that repeats the poet's portrait in changing colours, in number order where Open Library has the series cover.
Ballantine Adult Fantasy
44 books
Ballantine's Adult Fantasy series, edited by Lin Carter from 1969 to 1974, brought older fantasy back into print as paperbacks with a unicorn's head on the cover, many of them painted by Gervasio Gallardo.
Folio — Gallimard
96 books
Folio is Gallimard's numbered paperback series, launched in 1972; number 1 was Malraux's La Condition humaine, number 2 Camus's L'Étranger. Robert Massin gave it a white cover with author and title in black Baskerville above a single picture, a design that stayed in use until the end of 2010. Volumes from the first few hundred numbers in that design, one per author, in number order, from the covers Open Library has.
J'ai Lu — science-fiction
105 books
J'ai Lu launched its science-fiction line in 1970, with Jacques Sadoul as its editor; the volumes carry the house's running numbers, and their painted covers sit under the round J'ai Lu logo — in the 1970s with the big lowercase title, from the 1980s with a grey band marked S-F. Shown in number order, one book per work, each in a printing whose cover Open Library holds.
Présence du futur — Denoël
84 books
Présence du futur was the science-fiction series of the Paris publisher Denoël, founded in 1954 by Robert Kanters and published until 2000. From 1975 its covers were illustrated, at first with the picture inside a central circle on a colour gradient, until the art spread over the whole page towards the end of the 1980s. This wall shows the circle design only — first printings of the late 1970s and early 1980s and reprints of older numbers — one per work, in number order, from the covers Open Library has.
Penguin Clothbound Classics
63 books
Fischer Bücherei — covers by Heinz Edelmann
10 books
In 1966–68 Heinz Edelmann drew a run of covers for the Fischer Bücherei that Sammlung Keller calls style-defining for the series layout: a coloured band with the fish logo, the author and title set in black, and below them a full picture in his flat, bright colours of those years, a year or two before Yellow Submarine.
Steinbeck at dtv — covers by Celestino Piatti
22 books
From the mid-1980s dtv reissued John Steinbeck's books in German with covers by the Swiss artist Celestino Piatti: one bold black line drawing on a single colour for each book, signed in the corner. These are the covers Sammlung Keller shows, in the order of their dtv numbers.
dtv phantastica — covers by Celestino Piatti
36 books
From 1979 dtv published a series of fantastic fiction, dtv phantastica, and Celestino Piatti gave every volume the same black ground and a different picture on it: vampires, snails, a werewolf, a spaceship. These are the covers Sammlung Keller shows, in the order of their dtv numbers.
Kipling at Haffmans — covers by Nikolaus Heidelbach
10 books
Haffmans published a German Kipling edition in the late 1980s and 1990s, and Nikolaus Heidelbach drew a black-and-white picture for the panel on each volume: a tiger, a panther, an elephant, three schoolboys. Kim is shown in the Büchergilde Gutenberg edition, which kept the design. These are the volumes Sammlung Keller shows.
Virago Designer Collection
17 books
From 2008 Virago dressed some of its Modern Classics in patterns by textile and fashion designers, among them Orla Kiely and Cath Kidston, with a small title label on the print. These are the ones whose designer cover Open Library holds, in order of publication.
Penguin Great Ideas
89 books
Penguin's Great Ideas, from 2004: short works of thought in cream covers set only in type, each in the manner of the time the text was written, by David Pearson, Phil Baines, Catherine Dixon and Alistair Hall. The wall follows the six sets; where Open Library lacks the British cover, a US or later Penguin printing in the same design stands in.
NYRB Children's Collection
21 books
The New York Review Children's Collection brings back children's books with their original pictures, on coloured boards with a red spine band. The wall shows the hardcovers in this classic design; the later paperbacks look different and are left out.
L'Imaginaire
142 books
Gallimard's L'Imaginaire, from 1977: white covers on which each title is lettered in its own way. The wall shows numbers 200 to 400, the stretch Open Library covers best, in number order.
Découvertes Gallimard
149 books
Découvertes Gallimard, from 1986: small illustrated books with a picture running to the edges and a fixed title block, designed by Pierre Marchand. The wall shows numbers 1 to 200 where Open Library holds the series cover, in number order.
Zytglogge — covers by Werner Maurer
24 books
Werner Maurer's covers for Zytglogge in Bern in the 1970s, a house for Swiss writers, many of them writing in dialect: a fixed layout with a small picture in a field of colour. Three typographic covers of the Schwarze Reihe open the wall. These are the covers Sammlung Keller shows.
insel taschenbuch
329 books
Willy Fleckhaus designed the insel taschenbuch in 1972: pale card in ten colours, classical type, and a picture taken from an old book illustration, painting or portrait in a window on the front. The wall shows numbers 1 to 1500, the years of that design, where Open Library holds the cover; later numbers mix other designs.
Deutscher Buchpreis
21 books
The German Book Prize, awarded each autumn since 2005 to the novel of the year in German. One cover per winner in year order, the first German edition wherever Open Library has its cover.


