George Salter

1897 - 1967

George Salter was a stage designer from 1920-1927. He designed his first book jacket in Berlin in 1927. In 1930 he began teaching and was head of the department of commercial art at the Hoehere Graphische Fachschule in Berlin. March of 1933 found him declared persona non grata and was forbidden by the Reichskulturkamer. In November 1934 he came to America and began working almost immediately designing book jackets. He designed most of his book jackets for Alfred A. Knopf and did magazine covers for Mercury Publications, of which he was art director from 1939-1958. He taught classes in design at the School of Library Service at Columbia University in 1936 and calligraphy, book design and illustration at Cooper Union from 1936 to 1967. From 1950-1951 he taught at New York Universtiy. His students include Hans J. Barschel, Milton Glaser, Philip Grushkin, Jeanyee Wong, Claire Ross and Nicholas Fasciano. In addition to book jacket design he designed trademarks and logos for such clients as Time-Life Records, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Columbia University. A retrospective exhibit was held at Gallery 303 (formerly AD Gallery) in 1961.