This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald Dust Jacket Restoration

THIS SIDE OF PARADISE is an example of a very poor dust jacket becoming very good or even fine on the scale of book and dust jacket description! There are several ways for a collector to approach a severely damaged yet valuable dust jacket. The collector can purchase a reproduction jacket to place behind the original to fill in the missing sections and wrap both together in a Mylar jacket. That works well if reproductions are available and they match the original closely. But it can be obvious. Some collectors are sticklers about an untouched dust jacket regardless of condition. Finally, some collectors are happy to have the original carefully repaired when it has been damaged. My approach to dust jacket repair is to do as little to the original surface as possible. While tears and rips must be addressed or they will continue to get worse, I would never want to make an original Fitzgerald 1920’s dust jacket look like a new reproduction!

In this example the book had its original dust jacket with significant losses but luckily they were not in areas that were difficult to reproduce artistically. I repaired the tears, filled in the losses and recreated the lost artwork by hand. The added pieces can be removed if needed. I do my best to leave the original sections untouched.