We are excited to reveal the cover for Marilynne Robinson’s upcoming novel, Jack, publishing on September 29, 2020. Robinson returns to the world of Gilead for the latest novel in one of the great works of contemporary American fiction.
Jack tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the beloved, erratic, and grieved-over prodigal son of a Presbyterian minister in Gilead, Iowa. In segregated St. Louis sometime after World War II, Jack falls in love with Della Miles, an African American high school teacher who is also the daughter of a preacher—discerning, generous, and independent. Their fraught, beautiful romance is one of Robinson’s greatest achievements.
Marilynne Robinson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, is the author of the novels Lila, Home, Gilead, and Housekeeping, and four books of nonfiction, When I Was a Child I Read Books, Mother Country, The Death of Adam, and Absence of Mind . She teaches at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
In celebration of the publication of Jack, Picador will be reissuing Gilead, Home, and Lila with new covers designed by Na Kim with paintings by Charles E. Burchfield.
Best known for his romantic, often fantastic depictions of nature, watercolorist Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967) developed a unique style of watercolor painting that reflected distinctly American subjects and his profound respect for nature.
The Burchfield Penney Art Center features the largest public collection of works by Burchfield. Within the intertwined galleries of the museum, you will find an ever-changing display of his paintings and sketches, a recreation of his studio, the Charles E. Burchfield Rotunda (specifically designed to highlight his seasonal works), and even references to Burchfield in the building’s architecture.
According to Burchfield’s friend and colleague Edward Hopper, “The work of Charles Burchfield is most decidedly founded, not on art, but on life, and the life that he knows and loves best.”
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