[Collection of original production designs by Michael Harvey + some related printed jackets]]

Michael Harvey (1931–2013) was an English designer and teacher specializing in hand-lettering, type design, and the carving of letters into stone. His work appears in cathedrals throughout England—and on over 1,500 book covers and dust jackets. Although he knew how to use a computer, the overwhelming majority of his work was carried out with simple methods and tools developed over centuries. This collection features Harvey’s original studies, proposals, hand-painted final artworks, and some corresponding printed dust jackets, mostly from the late-1950s and and early-1960s. These designs, for the London publisher Collins, date from the very beginning of Michael Harvey’s career. In fact, included is his very first dust jacket from 1954, done when he was just 23. (It’s not great.) But the other pieces show his mastery of lettering and design.

The original designs in this collection are full-size gouache and ink paintings on paper or board, and all are signed by Harvey in the image. Five of the book jacket designs are for the Collins religion series; the others are novels. These designs were done while Harvey was still working as an assistant to Reynolds Stone. This is early Harvey making letters and dust jackets before they were made with zeros and ones.

1. Final artwork for Adrienne von Speyr’s Meditations on the Gospel of St. John, 1958.
2. Final artwork for Bruce Kenrick’s The New Humanity, 1958.
3. Final artwork for William Barclay’s The Mind of St. Paul, with the printed jacket published by Collins, 1958.
4. Final artwork for John Knox’s The Death of Christ, with the printed jacket published by Collins, 1959.
5. Final artwork for F.W. Dillistone’s The Novelist and the Passion Story, with the printed jacket published by Collins, 1960. Also included for comparison is the printed jacket from the American Sheed & Ward edition designed by James Boswell.
6. Final artwork for Susan Ertz’s In the Cool of the Day, with the printed jacket published by Collins, 1961. Also included for comparison is the Popular Library movie tie-in edition of 1963 by an unknown designer.
7. Final artwork for Agnes Sligh Turnbull’s The Nightingale, with the printed jacket published by Collins, 1961.
8. Trial design for Taylor Caldwell’s The Man Who Listens, with the printed jacket published by Collins, 1961.
9. Trial design for Gordon Richdale’s The Sunlight Years, with the printed jacket published by Collins, 1962.
10. Undated study for Petru Dumitriu’s Meeting at Judgement Day, with artwork for the black printing plate of the dust jacket and artwork for the color plate. (We could find no record of this book or design actually being published.)
11. Printed dust jacket for F.W. Bateson’s Wordsworth: A Re-interpretation. Longmans, Green & Co., 1954. According to Harvey’s Adventures with Letters (2012), this is his very first dust jacket.