Seabiscuit - An American Legend

Cover redesign iterations of Laura Hillenbrand's 2001 bestseller SeaBiscuit

Genre: Biography & Memoir, Sports, 20th Century U.S. History

This biography tells the story of Seabiscuit's career from underdog to champion racehorse. Hillenbrand crafted a remarkable account following not only the events that came to pass on the racetrack, but the interwoven lives of those who were deeply involved in the stubby horse's journey. In 1938, Seabisuit became the single biggest news maker in the world, in his greatly anticipated race facing the 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral.

For this title, I really enjoyed being able to soak up new tidbits of knowledge about an unfamiliar subject. For instance, when I started I thought the sources that described Seabiscuit as a "crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail", "His body was thick, his legs were stubby, and his tail was stunted" and "He was undersized, knobby-kneed" were all quite harsh! To my untrained eyes, he looked about the same as any of the other race horses, but after a while of working with the historical images, I started really being able to pick out the discrepancies that marked him as an ugly duckling. And when I was checking the pedigrees of Sea biscuit and War Admiral and realized they were nephew and uncle, it really added to the dramatic framing of the story for me.

Challenge: Create a cover that focuses less on using the design to establish genre and subject matter, since the name "Seabiscuit" is already widely associated with the racehorse, and focus more on an eye-catching visual and contemporary reintroduction of the subject.

Sports History

Comp Cover Research

Sports

20th Century U.S. History