Even the most avid follower of my work—one of the seven people who has read my books and listened to my podcasts and seen my long-ago video with Dan Savage . . .
. . . even that person would not necessarily know about my love for book jacket design. I can corner you at a party and talk about the relative merits of Henry Sene Yee versus Carol Devine Carson. I can spot a Chip Kidd from a ways off. I named my dog after Archie Ferguson, a genius who seems to have gotten out of the jacket-design game. (Please tell me if I am wrong!) So I was bound to be interested in this story from the Times about the cover of a beloved childhood classic:
For certain corners of the internet, a 1976 paperback edition of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel “A Wrinkle in Time” has been the source of an enduring mystery: Who was the artist behind its spooky, glowing-green cover art?
After a few hours of research, the podcast host Amory Sivertson thought she had found the answer.
Spoiler alert: the answer was not what she thought it was—but she did end up finding the answer.
The whole article has a rather triumphalist air, as if to say, Who wouldn’t want to know who painted the cover of A Wrinkle in Time?
But here’s my confession: Me. That’s who doesn’t want to know. Because I don’t like that book at all.
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