Complete vca Archives : Fita book cover creation

Book Cover Creation: Flowers in the Attic

Thanks to artist Lisa Falkenstern, we have these exclusive, never before seen photos and sketches of the creation of the original 1979 Flowers in the Attic book cover!

Lisa’s late husband, Milton Charles, was instrumental to the development of the V.C. Andrews phenomenon. He was the art director for Pocket Books and designed the look and feel of the V.C. Andrews books up until his retirement in 1985. We all know that part of what makes V.C. Andrews books so unique and haunting are the cover designs. Milton Charles was responsible for the very first cover, which set the stage for every V.C. Andrews book cover to follow.

In the article Interview with Ann Patty, Editor of Flowers in the Attic, Ann Patty talks about the original marketing of Flowers in the Attic. She says some very interesting things about the original cover design:

I had always had this vision that I wanted to see those kids on the attic floor on the cover. I kept insisting on it. And once again, I hadn’t been at Pocket Books long, I was—I don’t know—27 years old, I had no cred at all.

We’d been through various jackets, and I just said, “Not right, not right, not right.” Finally there was one, of a woman’s finger pulling a petal off a daisy with a face in the center.

And I still remember my boss coming in to me and saying, “How do you like the jacket?” I said I hated it. He said, “Well, it’s the jacket we’re going with.” I said, “You’re making a horrible mistake.”

He came back to me the next day and said, “Do you feel better about that jacket?” I said, “No! I worked my ass off on this book and you’re ruining it.” And he said, “Let’s go talk to the art director.”

So we went to Milton Charles and explained that somehow he had to figure out a way to show those kids in the attic. And that’s when he came up with the brilliant idea of the house with the cutout.

Cutouts had been done before, but nothing like that, with so much shiny foil, had been done. And then he found an artist who really got V.C.’s sensibilities, to do the painting on inside cover. After that, it became a template.

Below you will see rough sketches, paintings, and photo shoot pictures. The sketches were created by Milton Charles, while the cover paintings were done by artist Gillian Hills.