Wikipedia:WikiProject Free book covers

This is a project to replace modern book covers used to illustrate articles about books in the public domain. These images are not really acceptable under the "replaceable" clause of our fair use policy, since the books' original covers, title pages, etc. would be free. The list below includes articles that rely on such illustrations unnecessarily, and, where they've been found, links to images that could replace those illustrations.

There are several very good reasons to do this:
 * Our policy states that free images are always preferable to non-free images.
 * Including an image of the first edition is much more encyclopedic; it provides real information about the book, rather than about a modern publisher.
 * It educates our users and the public about the history of these books and about the value of freely licensed material.

Volunteers needed
You can do any of three things:
 * 1) Look for articles on books published in the US before 1923 (as well as most other books published before that date as well, and all published before 1909 ) that use copyrighted, modern book covers as illustrations. Category:Books by year and its many subcategories are useful.  Add them to the list if they're not already on it.


 * 1) *Another good place to look is Category:Book covers, though it is huge. Some of those images are actually PD images, which are mistagged (only fair use covers belong in that category)--if the images are clearcut public domain, it would be very useful to change the tags on those images.
 * 2) Look for public domain images--covers, title pages, illustrations, etc.--on the web. Library and academic sites are good.  Auction/rare book dealer sites can be good.  Project Gutenberg has a few images, not many.  Generally, title pages are actually preferable to covers, since they have more content. Add the link next to the book title. Note that only plain reproductive photographs of two-dimensional objects are ineligible to copyright (see Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp.). Modern photos that show only the title page or the front cover are ok, but modern photos that show the old books as 3D objects are covered by the photographer's copyright: do not use those, unless the images themselves are explicitly released under a free license.
 * 3) Upload a PD image from one of the links below (to Commons only if you're sure it's public domain worldwide; if it's PD-US, or if you're not sure, upload it to Wikipedia), replace the existing image in the article, and tag the old one orfud. Leave a gentle note on the uploader's talk page explaining why it's better to use PD cover images for PD books, or just cut and paste the template below, replacing the parameters with the filenames of the old and new images.  Strike out the book title on the list, but don't remove it, when done.
 * 4) *Possible edit summary: Replacing fair use cover with free image; volunteers needed
 * 5) *Possible talk page message: ~

Useful links

 * commons:Category:Book covers--our own collection, many of which are not on Wikipedia yet
 * British Library (possibly ineligible because of the logo in the corner of each one, though in some cases these could be cropped out)
 * Beinecke Library
 * Leeds Library adopt-a-book
 * Also try doing a google search using "site:leeds.ac.uk"
 * Brown U. exhibit on Bernard Shaw--full of great stuff
 * Virginia Tech image database--good theatre collection
 * Southern American Lit. from U. North Carolina--many images
 * 19th cent. American journal collection at Cornell--if you know when an American novel was serialized and in what journal (which is usually in our article), you can just go to that issue using the browse feature.

Books in the public domain using copyrighted book covers as illustrations
'''Note: This list is several years out of date. There is no point in striking entries right now, unless someone wants to restart this.''' {{collapse|2=Old list of titles and sources for reference purposes, out of date|1= A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q
 * The Age of Innocence manuscript page; advertisement (very interesting); Yale also has a lot more manuscript pages, including a preliminary outline/notes in Wharton's hand
 * Alice's Adventures in Wonderland FE title page (small); 1884 title page (needs to be cropped)
 * The American (novel)
 * Anna Karenina
 * Anne of Avonlea
 * Anne of Green Gables FE cover needs photoshopping
 * Anne of the Island
 * Around the World in Eighty Days 1873 French binding 1874/75 French binding 1876 French binding 1895 French binding, with illustration 1911 French binding Title page, probably from 1911 French edition Used the 1873 FE.
 * The Aspern Papers
 * Au Bonheur des Dames manuscript
 * Barchester Towers
 * Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Lots of cover images from lots of different editions, including the very first one. (Small and may need a little cropping. Maybe ineligible because spine is visible in original image and thus 3D?)
 * The Betrothed rather poor quality title page; we can do better, I think
 * Black Beauty Cover of first edition, with handwritten dedication by author, auctioned off at Christie's for £33,000 in June 2006.
 * The Bostonians serialized
 * The Brothers Karamazov First page of original Russian edition, TOC from Ruskii Vestnik (the paper where it appeared in serialized form); both from.
 * The Captain's Daughter
 * Carmen (novella)
 * Cashel Byron's Profession multiple early editions, plus other Shaw stuff
 * Childhood (novel)
 * Clarissa sample page, first edition, illustration, first edition
 * Clotel FE title page, also includes cover and Frontispiece
 * Confidence (novel)
 * The Coral Island Not the first edition, but a nicely illustrated UK edition from 1893 (Crop 2nd image to use only title page? Or ask Kim Olivier for a better image or an explicit PD/free license release?) Cropped image uploaded: Image:Coral Island 1893.jpg
 * The Count of Monte Cristo
 * The Cricket on the Hearth illustration chapter heading
 * Crime and Punishment
 * Daniel Deronda Cover of first edition, 1876, from
 * David Copperfield (novel) FE title page
 * Death in Venice
 * Democracy: An American Novel done: Image:Adams Democracy Cover.jpg.
 * Doctor Wortle's School
 * Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp FE title page, also includes cover and spine
 * Dubrovsky
 * Emma replaced with Image:Emma title page 1909.jpg
 * An Essay on the Principle of Population FE title page, also see (linked at ) for the title page of Malthus's Prinicples of Political Economy.
 * Ethan Frome FE cover FE cover
 * Eugene Onegin
 * The Europeans serialized
 * Exiles (play)--I believe the cover there--it's Huebsch--is the first American edition, 1918. Can we confirm this?
 * Don't know. But in any case, here's the title page of the very first edition (London: Grant Richards, 1918). Lupo 23:29, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Saw that. Doesn't the hand make it not a simple copy, and thus copyrighted?  Chick Bowen 23:32, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I would've been bold and cropped it to only use the right page. Yes, the hand may make the image as a whole copyrighted. But the reproduction of this book page surely falls under Bridgeman. I would say their copyright might extend to the hand and the idea of placing it in the lower left corner, but the rest is a normal reproductive photograph. Dunno if that reasoning is sound. It's in analogy to texts: I could publish a collection of PD texts, write a preface, and I would get a copyright on the preface and the selection of texts, but not on the texts themselves. We do similar things with paintings: On Commons:Derivative_works there's even a recommendation to crop away the frame (if shown in an image). Again, I'm not sure whether that's truly sound advice... Lupo 23:50, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
 * OK, I went with it. Chick Bowen 00:06, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Fanny Hill &mdash; given the history of this book, a "first edition" might be hard to find. Cover of an English edition printed in Paris. Year seems to be 1838? (The image is small and of low quality, I can't make out the second digit of the year...) A 1910 French edition by Guillaume Apollinaire also exists. Both are rather unspectacular. Here's a ca. 1910 U.S. cover (from ), and here are some illustrations by Paul Avril (1843-1928) from a 1908 French publication.
 * That 1910 one seemed best, though tamer of course than some of those illustrations--I uploaded it at Image:Fanny Hill 1910 cover.jpg. Others can be uploaded as well of course.  Chick Bowen 05:06, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Framley Parsonage serialized
 * Frankenstein An image has been uploaded--Image:Frankenstein.1831.inside-cover.jpg. The previous one was moved further down on the page but remains; whether it is acceptable as fair use is debatable but may be beyond the scope of this wikiproject. Chick Bowen 04:18, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Germinal FE title page, small
 * The Golden Bowl
 * The Grand Inquisitor
 * Great Expectations FE title page (JS link, lower left corner)
 * Green Mansions FE cover
 * Herland (novel)
 * The House of Mirth FE cover FE illustration FE illustration
 * Home of the Gentry 1862 edition (German translation by Paul Fuchs, printed in Leipzig)
 * Howards End
 * Humphry Clinker
 * The Idiot (novel)
 * In the Cage
 * The Insulted and Humiliated
 * The Invisible Man FE cover
 * Ivanhoe
 * Jane Eyre title page of play adaptation manuscript page FE title page
 * A Journal of the Plague Year done: Image:Defoe Journal of the Plague Year.jpg (1722 FE title page).
 * Jude the Obscure FE title page
 * The Jungle Book Cover of the U.S. first edition (The Century Company, NY, 1894), from ; or cover of the British first edition (Macmillan, 1894), from.
 * L'Assommoir FE title page
 * La Cousine Bette
 * La Reine Margot (novel) 1889 English cover at eBay; needs a little gimping (let's promote GFDL software!): the camera icon should be removed.
 * The Last of the Mohicans Title page of 1828 French edition with illustration
 * Les Liaisons dangereuses Several illustrations from a 1796 edition at the French WP Les Liaisons dangereuses; some more at the University of Montpellier:
 * Lilith (novel)
 * Madame Bovary done: Image:Madame Bovary 1857.jpg.
 * The Man Who Laughs manuscript page
 * Manon Lescaut The French WP article Manon Lescaut has a number of illustrations: first page, The Chevalier des Grieux meets Manon Lescaut, des Grieux visits Manon, Manon's death. All illustrations by Jean-Jacques Pasquier (engraver, died 1785). Comparing the first page and Manon's death with, I think that all four images at the French WP are from the 1753 Amsterdam book edition and thus actually PD-old (and not CC-1.0, as stated at the French WP).
 * Mansfield Park (novel) needs to be edited down to just title page
 * Marius the Epicurean Luxury binding done by Toof & Co. in 1900 (with spine, tilted), from
 * Merryland
 * The Minister's Wooing lousy cover and spine
 * Moby-Dick FE title page
 * The Moonstone FE title page
 * The Mystery of the Yellow Room FE cover (Editions Pierre Lafitte, 1908). Also: a portrait of the fictional detective Rouletabille as it appeared on the cover of L'illustration on October 19, 1907. Both done.
 * Nana (novel) Jacket of 1917 Dutch edition from.
 * The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket there was already a small thumbnail of the FE title page further down; replaced lead image with that one and orphaned lead
 * New Grub Street Manuscript, according to the archived source site from the Berg Collection, NY Public Library.
 * Northanger Abbey needs editing, 1922 title page, PD-US
 * The Old Curiosity Shop FE illustration
 * Persuasion (novel) 1909 title page
 * Philosophy in the Bedroom
 * The Pilgrim's Progress 1719 title page for part 2, 1860 title page--scroll down, illustration by Blake, 1778 illustration, 1850 illustration
 * The Portrait of a Lady Original magazine publication
 * A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man FE cover
 * The Possessed (novel)
 * The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas Title page of a copy dedicated by the author to the Brazilian National Library. Machado de Assis died 1908, so evidently this was published before. The handwritten text reads "A Bibliotheca Nacional offerece Machado di Assis". The writing is Machado de Assis's.
 * Pride and Prejudice Here are a title page and many illustrations from a 1907 British edition. Illustrations by C. E. Brock (died 1938). Published before 1923 (in fact, even before 1909), so certainly PD-US; and from January 1, 2009 on PD-old-70. Oh yeah, and here (warning: 28MB download) is a TIFF file of an open copy of the 1813 FE. (Linked here.)
 * The Princess Casamassima serialized
 * The Prisoner of Zenda 1898 cover (second printing) Well... 1894 Henry Holt & Co (U.S. FE), 1898 Holt/Grosset & Dunlap cover (matches the Grosset & Dunlap cover of Rupert of Hentzau mentioned below), 1896 Holt cover (same style)
 * Quo Vadis (novel)
 * Google Books has a 1897 edition of Quo Vadis (with a watermark :-\).  Would that be okay?  --Iamunknown 06:14, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes. The watermark should be removed in an image editing program.  I'll get around to this at some point if no one else does. Chick Bowen 21:19, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I did this. Once I discovered Google Books's HTML option it got a lot easier. Chick Bowen 21:48, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

R S T V W
 * The Red and the Black
 * The Return of the Soldier FE Frontispiece FE title page needs photoshopping
 * The Reverberator
 * Roderick Hudson
 * Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress
 * Rupert of Hentzau done: Image:Rupert of Hentzau.jpg. Also: 1898 Grosset & Dunlap (U.S. edition), see also added as Image:Hentzau1898.jpg.
 * Sartor Resartus
 * Sense and Sensibility FE title page
 * She (novel) Longman's 1887 edition (3D, definitely not eligible!), Title page of that edition (reproductive photo, I guess Bridgeman would apply?). Related: 1905 print of Ayesha.
 * Silas Marner
 * The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde contains two 1886 covers
 * A Tale of Two Cities FE title page
 * Taras Bulba
 * Tess of the d'Urbervilles FE cover
 * Tom Brown's Schooldays FE title page
 * The Tragic Muse
 * Thérèse Raquin
 * Treasure Island as Dime novel, undated but the Select Library series ran c.1900-1910
 * The Turn of the Screw serialized
 * Vathek Frontispiece of 4th edition, 1823
 * Venus in Furs
 * Villette (novel) 1853 German edition (in English)
 * The War of the Worlds (novel) Original cover page from
 * Washington Square (novel) Front cover of Original 1880 ed of Harper's, from.
 * What Maisie Knew not great, maybe with photoshopping?
 * The Wheels of Chance
 * Where Angels Fear to Tread FE cover (I think)
 * Winesburg, Ohio (novel)
 * The World Set Free Online facsimile of the first edition from 1914.
 * Wuthering Heights First American ed., 1848, famous for false claim "by the author of Jane Eyre"

Nonfiction
A B C D E F G I J L M O P R S T W }}
 * The American Scene
 * America's National Game (the image that is there may be the first edition, mistagged) &mdash;Yup, it's the first edition (American Sports Publishing Co., NY, 1911). Better image (without the glare from the flash) is available at Flickr. (Flickr user claims "all rights reserved", but doesn't this fall under Bridgeman?)
 * The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin done: Image:Memoirs of Franklin.jpg. There's also the cover of the very first French edition at, but it's inside a Flash animation... can it be extracted?
 * That would be great to have, but I have no idea how or if it's possible. Chick Bowen 21:01, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes it is (at least in this case). The Flash thingy is actually a program that loads the image (in 15 tiles at the largest magnification). I got those 15 image files and stitched them together; I'll upload it tomorrow, though (it needs a little rotation and cropping, and I don't have the right tools on the machine I'm using right now). Lupo 21:43, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Done. Lupo 08:09, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
 * The Autobiography of Charles Darwin done: Image:Darwin Life And Letters.jpg.
 * The Autumn of the Middle Ages
 * Beyond Good and Evil FE title page, 1886, German
 * The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
 * The Book on Adler
 * A Child's History of England
 * Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments
 * Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
 * The Conquest of Bread First English edition 1906, title page
 * The Decline of the West (existing image has no source, no publisher, no indication of year) &mdash;was mistagged. It is the cover of the 1922 first edition of vol. II. Source added, tagged PD-US. Lupo 13:58, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Democracy in America 1848 title page
 * Either/Or done: Image:Kierkegaard Enten-Eller.jpg.
 * El Perú (book)
 * English Hours
 * Fear and Trembling
 * The French Revolution (Carlyle) done: Image:Carlyle French Revolution.jpg.
 * Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
 * Innocents Abroad current image allegedly is from a "pirated British edition" with an unknown year. gutenberg.org has PD images of an 1884 cover and the FE title page (1869), plus lots of other illustrations.
 * The Interpretation of Dreams FE title page (German), linked at (see also LoC). Large; stamp in top right corner of previous owner should be GIMPed away.
 * Italian Hours
 * Jewish Publication Society of America Version
 * A Journal of the Plague Year done: Image:Defoe Journal of the Plague Year.jpg
 * Life on the Mississippi Glorious images at gutenberg.org (first U.S. edition), also see here for the first English edition, which apparently was published a few days earlier.
 * A Little Tour in France
 * Married Love done: Image:Married Love Cover.jpg (1st ed., 1918)
 * Merck Index
 * Oregon Blue Book (original may be hard to find)
 * Oxford English Dictionary
 * The Perfumed Garden
 * Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist
 * Pygmalion (play) with other Shaw plays
 * The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception
 * Serres chaudes
 * Sidereus Nuncius FE title page First edition was already on commons.
 * The Steadfast Tin Soldier
 * The Temptation of Saint Anthony
 * Ten Days that Shook the World done: Image:Ten Days That Shook The World Cover.jpg
 * The Tent Dwellers
 * Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (first Germ. ed., 1921, very rare, complicated copyright, but the Ogden trans. is 1922 [Routledge] and should be PD-US if we can find it)
 * World Almanac

Participants
Note: anyone can participate: this is a Wiki, remember? If you'd like to help without listing yourself here, that's fine. And if you like to put your name here, that's cool, too.


 * Chick Bowen
 * Lupo

Free book covers