Dragon Tattoo Cover a Good Story, Too

After dozens of attempts, artist arrived at distinctive design
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 18, 2010 5:30 AM CDT
Dragon Tattoo Cover a Good Story, Too
Peter Mendelsund designed the cover of the American edition of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," by Stieg Larsson.   (Vintage/Knopf Doubleday via Amazon)

It's everywhere you look—at the beach, on the subway, in the waiting room. Americans are devouring The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and the bestselling novel's distinctive cover has a pretty good story of its own, reports the Wall Street Journal. Designer Peter Mendelsund went through dozens of possibilities, and the fact that the title had to be changed—in the original Swedish, it's Men Who Hate Women—didn't make the process easier.

The end product, a predominantly yellow image with dragon design, "was striking and it was different," says Sonny Mehta, the head of Knopf Doubleday. The book is the first part of a trilogy, and "I was extremely worried that they would be dismissed as crime novels, Scandinavian crime novels, in translation," he recalls. Bullet dodged: The book has sold 3.8 million copies in the US alone.
(More publishing stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X