A Childhood in Twenty Book Covers - Jaws by Peter Benchley
Jaws by Peter Benchley Of all the book covers I will be blogging about over the coming weeks, the cover artwork for Peter Benchley’s 1974 horror/thriller Jaws is without doubt the most iconic *1 . Since its publication in hardback 51 years ago, the cover has barely changed – each piece of front cover artwork has been a variation on this same design *2 . It even became an integral part of the branding for Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film adaptation, being used on the theatrical poster. The image of the swimmer doing the breast-stroke on the surface of the water, with the shark swimming hungrily up towards her, huge mouth gaping and displaying rows of dangerously razor-sharp teeth has caused thousands of beachgoers to giggle nervously as they paddled further and further out into the sea; not really believing that a shark could be swimming around in the water with them, but keeping a sharp, watchful eye out for that tell-tale grey fin all the same. When I was a kid, I was one of those n...
