![]() He talked about the excitement generated by the book. Congdon rose and made his presentation: “Of all the fish in the sea, the fiercest is the Great White Shark,” he began. The sales managers were given the one-sentence sales “handle,” which in practically all the salesman, who usually have an hour to sell a buyer 60 or 70 titles, will have time to say, “the handle for Jaws” was: “The exciting tale of a resort town fighting for its life against a Great White Shark.” … To turn it over to the Times Magazine, which brought the sales pitch meeting to life:Īt the sales conference at the Taliment Country Club in the Poconos, six regional sales managers sat around a table listening to the editors make their presentation, and a slide of the jacket was projected on a screen. ![]() Minor ’ s comp at left, with Tom Simmonds ’ eventual first UK edition at right The article touches on the book’s cover-beginning with art director Alex Gotfryd, “an urbane man with a Polish cavalry mustache who turns out 700 jackets a year.” Gotfryd initially commissioned Wendell Minor to illustrate Benchley’s own idea for the jacket: “to show a peaceful unsuspecting town through the bleached jaws of a shark.” In 1974, following the massive success of the book, The New York Times Magazine published Ted Morgan’s riveting (and exhausting) behind-the-scenes piece about its publication. This weekend marks the 45th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s breakout adaptation of the book, and we’re looking back on the development of its iconic pair of covers. The initial covers of Peter Benchley’s Jaws were so memorable in their dread-inducing power that they made their way to the film’s branding, and today are inseparable from it. It’s an image that has caused an entire generation to be wary of the ocean ’ s depths: A woman breast strokes at the surface, and a colossal great white shark rises directly below her.
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