DJ Back Style j Variations

Back style j is characterized by two basic elements:

  • A pair of vertically stacked coloured blocks, almost always at the top right. The upper block had text: The best of the world's best books. The lower block showed a right-facing torchbearer logo—type 1 with a flaming stream over the torchbearer's head (1960-1961), type 2 with a short vertical flame (1962-1963). The block colors were coordinated with some element on the DJ—text, graphic, or background.
  • Text that nearly always read "Other titles in The Modern Library of special interest to readers of <<current book title>> followed by a list of suggested titles.

There were also some specialized variations, illustrated below.

Keep in mind that jacket styles often appear much later than their "in print" dates—ML wanted to use up old stock, and sometimes they failed to update jacket data. Date overlaps can exist. Mid-season subtype changes were the norm.

j1   1960 - 1961

 Streaming Flame

j2  1962 - 1963

Vertical Flame

Greek Plays Variation

This specialized variation concentrated on promoting the Greek Plays series. It appeared only on the backs of dust jackets covering the Greek Plays titles, and can be found in both type 1 & type 2. This variation has also been reported without the bottom line "For a complete list of titles ... ". Additionally, 311.1 has been reported with an ISBN number.

Faulkner Variation

This specialized variation promoted the Faulkner titles. It appeared only on the backs of some Faulkner titles of the period in type 2, prescient of the later specialized Faulkner backs in DJ back types k & n.

Unique Left-Side Blocks

This Kafka back from The Trial is the only one we've seen with the text blocks on the left side. If you've seen others please let us know.

 

Unique Six American Plays

This DJ covering Six American Plays For Today shows the blocks at the bottom rather than the top. They're inverted from their usual position, and the torchbearer is facing left. Additionally the text advertises the entire collection of plays in the series rather than just one type of literature or the works of a single playwright.