Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic - their irises are one yard high. Eckleburg that watches over one of the climactic moments of Fitzgerald’s work: “For Christ’s sake don’t give anyone that jacket you’re saving for me,” Fitzgerald wrote, “I’ve written it into the book.” It’s not clear exactly what Fitzgerald meant by this, but it is generally believed that that Cugat’s haunting image was realized in the form of the recurring billboard for oculist Dr. In a letter to editor Max Perkins, Fitzgerald, whose manuscript was late, requested that the art be held for him. Scribner notes that its origin is somewhat unusual in that the cover art was designed before the manuscript was finished, resulting in a sort of collaboration between the artist and writer that may have yielded one of the more prominent literary symbols in American literature. In a 1991 essay discussing the connections between the book and its cover, publishing scion Charles Scribner III, who revived the cover after a 40 year absence for his classic edition of the book in 1979, charted the development of the work from its original conception to the final gouache painting of the detached gaze.
Little is known about Cugat –also known as Francisco Coradal-Cougat– and the Gatsby cover, for which he was paid the princely sum of $100, was the only one he ever designed. This iconic work of art was created by Spanish artist Francis Cugat. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece 88 years after its debut.
Evocative of sorrow and excess, this haunting image has become so inextricably linked to The Great Gatsby that it still adorns the cover of F. It’s one of the most recognizable book covers in the history of American literature: two sad female eyes and bright red lips adrift in the deep blue of a night sky, hovering ominously above a skyline that glows like a carnival.
right: a first edition of the book (image: USC) Left: Francis Cugat’s original gouache painting for The Great Gatsby.
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