The Alienist (The Alienist

Caleb Carr’s The Alienist is a best-selling crime novel from 1994. It takes place at the end of the nineteenth century – 1896 to be exact – and revolves around the hunt for a particularly menacing serial killer.
While more monetarily successful than most, The Alienist is not unlike other books in its genre, many of which have similarly thematic cover illustrations; ie, dark horse-drawn carriages and enigmatic figures in black cloaks and/or top hats, the idea being that the lack of detail in the image makes it more mysterious. Many of the cover illustrations for books of this genre are sourced from anonymous photographs made in the time period and setting of the plot, and now owned by stock agencies, used as is or perhaps collaged to fit the vision of the designer.
In this case, the photo is by Alfred Stieglitz, taken in 1901, while he was a part of the Photo-Secessionist movement he helped create. It was also a period when Stieglitz was trying to push the technical limits of the medium by photographing at night and in poor weather.
What I find interesting about this cover is that the designer has taken a very small (less than 20% of the original image) detail, and blown it up, reducing sharpness and detail, increasing and blunting the grain, resulting in an illustration that conjures a sense of something secretive, seen from a distance or perhaps in a dream.

Click at left to see The Street 1901 as frontispiece and as photogravure.

Click on image at left to see full cover spread.