George Salter
George Salter (5 October 1897 – 31 October 1967), born Georg Salter, was an originally German, and from 1940 onwards an American book cover designer. He revolutionized cover design for books. He claimed worldwide fame for his design for Alfred Döblins Berlin Alexanderplatz.
Also recorded as Georg Salter
George Salter
Warren.williams · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1897 · Bremen.
- Died
- 1967 · New York City.
- Nationality
- United States · Germany
- Occupation
- artist · illustrator · designer
- Languages
- German
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for George Salter. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q834817 · wikipedia · George Salter
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Life
Life
Georg Salter was born in Bremen, the child of a Hamburg musician. In the year of his birth, his parents converted from Judaism to Christian faith. With his parents and three siblings he moved to Berlin. After finishing school and serving in the military, he studied in the art craft school in Berlin. 1921, he began work as set designer. Starting in 1927, he started working as designer for the publisher Die Schmiede. Salter taught at the Municipal Art School in Berlin in the early 1930s, where he taught designer Hans Barschel. In November 1934 Salter emigrated to the US and started living in New York, where he immediately began to design book jackets for US publishers. He became an American citizen in 1940. Salter was married to Agnes O'Shea and had one daughter, Janet. He died in New York City on October 31, 1967.
Documentary record
George Salter appears in the authority records of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek as an artist, illustrator, graphic designer, book designer, calligrapher, stage designer and university teacher (5 October 1897 – 31 October 1967). George Salter was born on 5 October 1897 in Bremen and died on 31 October 1967 in New York, NY. Places of activity recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: Berlin and New York, NY.
Identity and overview
Identity and overview
The canonical record carries the following identifying particulars.
Works and production
Works and production
Catalogued output is recorded as follows.
Cover design from the first-edition dust jacket of the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged by the Russian-American writer Ayn Rand.
Published by Random House. Jacket design by George Salter. · Scan via Heritage Auctions Lot #36334. Cropped from the original image.
First-edition dust jacket of the 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged by the Russian-American writer Ayn Rand.
Published by Random House. Jacket design by George Salter. Photo portrait of Rand by Phyllis Cerf. · Scan via Heritage Auctions Lot #36545. Cropped from the original image and retouched
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Bremen.
Birth place
New York City.
Death place
Literature
• Thomas S. Hansen: Classic Book Jackets. The Design Legacy of George Salter. Princeton Architectural Press, New York: 2005
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article George Salter, revision 1351267816 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Achim Bonte: Urheber vertrieben. Werke weiter verwertet. Georg Salter im „Dritten Reich“. In: Aus dem Antiquariat, Neue Folge 18, 2020, S. 142–151.
- 2.Deutsche Biographie, q. v.
- 3.Jürgen Holstein: Georg Salter. Bucheinbände und Schutzumschläge aus der Berliner Zeit 1922–1934, 2003, S. 15
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Modern design
3,254 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- George LoisDesigner
- George NakashimaDesigner
- George NelsonDesigner
- George OatesDesigner
- George SheringhamDesigner
- George SowdenDesigner
- George TschernyDesigner
- George YaterDesigner
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by George Salter?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.