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Virago Modern Classics

Virago launched its Modern Classics in 1978 with Antonia White's Frost in May, reissuing out-of-print books by women writers. For years the paperbacks shared one design: a dark green band carrying the author and title, above a painting chosen for the book, often a detail. The back covers name the picture. This wall gathers the green-band printings Open Library holds covers for, and gives the painting where a scan of the same printing, or a collector quoting her own copy, names it.

Create your own collection — from any cover, or from a photo of your shelf

The paintings are named as the books credit them on the back cover, for the printing shown, read from scans at the Internet Archive or from collectors quoting their own copies. Where a tile names nothing, no such credit was found — the picture is not therefore anonymous.