(click to enlarge)

 A few months ago I picked up these three Shakespeare paperbacks published in the early 1980s at a used book store for a couple of bucks each. I don't love their over-all cover design, but the portraits illustrated by the amazing Mark English more than make up for that. I'd love to find more Shakespeare covers illustrated by English, but I have no idea how many he illustrated and I haven't been able to find much information about them online.

This portrait is my favorite due to the contrast between tiny sharp details and simple soft-edged shapes. I wish more more books were published with illustrated portraits as covers.