Bookcovers across National Borders: Don DeLillo’s White Noise in US, British and Italian Editions

The topic of bookcovers seems to be quite overlooked when discussing books: while the text is for sure the most important element of a book, the cover is still important and worth studying. This study will try to shed light onto this dismissed topic, analysing what stands behind bookcovers. After examining the history of bookcovers from both a practical and theoretical aspect, the different stylistic approaches adopted in the English and in the Italian publishing industry will be explored, with a more thorough focus on Penguin and Einaudi. Both these publishers are leaders in their countries market, other than the most important publishers for Don DeLillo’s White Noise, the case study of this work. The second part of this study will focus precisely on White Noise covers, starting from its English editions and then moving to the Italian translations. Delillo’s book serves the perfect occasion to analyse and compare different covers, since it has a rich and diverse publication history in both the English and Italian-speaking world. The different covers will be analysed with particular attention to their details and to the differences across various editions. Additionally, the Italian and English editions will be compared to determine whether any changes reflect cultural or national sensibilities. The analysis will also explore whether the covers reveal a particular perception of the English-speaking world in Italy – and, in DeLillo’s novel case, of the United States.