Classic Book Covers Reinvented (PHOTOS)

IMAGES: New Covers For Classic Books

Some of the greatest books in literature are now available in the public domain - yet the public domain editions are often poorly designed, with automatically generated covers. The Creative Action Network (CAN)'s Recovering the Classics campaign aims to change that. They invited designers and illustrators to create high-quality covers for 50 classic texts.

The CAN describes itself as "a small team of artists, organizers, and technologists mobilizing artists to put their talents to work for causes they care about."

They describe the project thus:

"At a time when battles over copyright are raging, the value of the public domain is clear. We believe that projects like this are an important part of keeping our creative heritage fresh and vibrant. That’s why we’re so excited to bring in new generations of creators to remix, remake, and reimagine art for some of our favorite books."

For every physical or digital book sold as part of this project, the designer receives 40% of the revenue, and the rest goes to the CAN and its campaign partners, DailyLit and the Harvard Bookstore.

Submissions are accepted at any time - there's no deadline. Here are some of their favorite entries so far:

Don Quixote illustrated by Wedha Abdul Rasyid

New covers for classic books

Correction: The piece originally stated that the deadline was today; in fact, there is no deadline for submissions.

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