Charles Scribner Pens Letter to Editor Over 'Gatsby' Hollywood Book Cover

"I would not be ashamed to be seen reading it on the subway," the publishing heir wrote.
The "Gatsby" book cover inspired by the Baz Luhrmann adaptation.

Is it slightly embarrassing to tote around a Great Gatsby book with Leonardo DiCaprio on the cover? For some book lovers, apparently, it could be. 

But Charles Scribner V, heir to the Scribner family, which originally published the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, doesn't mind the movie tie-in of Gatsby.

THR COVER: Baz Luhrmann's Despair, Drive and Gamble Behind 'Great Gatsby'

As noted by one of the newspaper's reporters, Scribner penned a letter to the editor in reply to a New York Times article about Gatsby's movie tie-in cover.

The article aired observations and criticisms from booksellers about the cover, inspired by the Baz Luhrmann 3D film adaptation.

A particularly scathing quote from a bookseller at the independent McNally Jackson store noted to the newspaper: "I think it would bring shame ... to anyone who was trying to read that book on the subway."

Scribner, however, replied that he doesn't mind the cover at all.

In a letter to the Times that he deemed to be a "historical note," he explained that even the now-revered original "celestial eyes" cover of the book had "disappeared" for decades after Fitzgerald's death.

And he conceded: "Yet I confess to liking the Leonardo DiCaprio cover, too (the new movie tie-in). I would not be ashamed to be seen reading it on the subway, but then I’m a Gemini."

Gatsby, featuring DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire, hits U.S. theaters on May 10.
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