The Generic Dust Jacket

These five Bantam dust jackets were wrapped around Superior Reprint books that Ian Ballantine brought with him when he left Penguin.

They belong (in order) to Bantam numbers 146, 148, 149, 150, & 151. (Bantam #147 was a normal Bantam issue, and was unjacketed.)

It was an interesting cost-cutting device, but you have to wonder if it was very effective. Then again, Ballantine probably didn't have large quantities of the books left to sell.

There's very little information about the phenomenon. I'm going to have to guess that the illustration was originally commissioned for The Navy Colt, which, by the way, is the most valuable dust jacket of the five.

All five scans were contributed by Fred Meyerriecks.