Looking at some of the great American novels of the 20th century, I noticed a pattern. Maybe you will too:
I don't know about you, but I see a lot of yellow and brown here... And I think it's telling. Honestly, when I think of American novels around the 20s, the Depression, or the World Wars, I think of the colour brown. Why? There's probably a cultural reason, and (although I have very little background, and I'm just speculating), I think it has to do with American values of that not-so-long-ago era.
Americans value hard work, the kind of work that a person does for an entire lifetime, struggling nobly against obstacles. The settlers who came to the States from Europe (like the settlers in Canada) primarily farmed the fields, drove cattle, and made their living off the wild western land. It follows that, for a long time, farm-related imagery was (and maybe still is) a symbol of hard, persevering work.
When the "great American novels" aren't about professional work (as in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn), they're usually still about a struggle. Sometimes, it's literally a struggle for survival, but it can also be a struggle for meaning, ambition, friendship... The key point, in my opinion, is hard and enduring struggle, and brown covers highlight that theme.
But not all brown covers are American, of course...
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