The cover is unlikely to be eligible for copyright in the first place due to its simple design.
Even if the design were eligible for copyright protection, the dust jacket was published without a notice between 1978 and 1989 and was not registered for copyright within five years.
The book's dust jacket can be inspected at Worthpoint. A search of the US Copyright Office's Copyright Catalog (1978 to present) turns up no results for the dust jacket design (which would be considered distinct from the novel itself, since the dust jacket was removable).
"A notice of copyright on the dust jacket of a book is not an acceptable notice for the book, because the dust jacket is not permanently attached to the book. Likewise, a notice appearing in a book is not an acceptable notice for the dust jacket or any material appearing on that dust jacket, even if the book refers to the jacket or material appearing on the jacket.".
Keep in mind that the pre-1989 requirements for copyright notice were highly formalistic and, other than a few enumerated exceptions, required these three elements:
"The name of the copyright owner, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner."
If just one of these elements is omitted, the work is deemed to be published without notice and is not eligible for copyright protection. Neither the year nor a copyright symbol (or any acceptable variant) appear anywhere on the dust jacket. Credits like "Jacket design by Jack Ribik" do not meet the requirements, nor do the identifications of the publisher and author.
Licensing
This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1978 and March 1, 1989 without a copyright notice, and its copyright was not subsequently registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within 5 years.
Unless its author has been dead for several years, it is copyrighted in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada (50 pma), Mainland China (50 pma, not Hong Kong or Macau), Germany (70 pma), Mexico (100 pma), Switzerland (70 pma), and other countries with individual treaties. See this page for further explanation.
This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate {{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag.
Note: This tag applies to scans and photocopies only. For photographs of public domain originals taken from afar, {{PD-Art}} may be applicable. See Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
The depicted text is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain because it is not a “literary work” or other protected type in sense of the local copyright law. Facts, data, and unoriginal information which is common property without sufficiently creative authorship in a general typeface or basic handwriting, and simple geometric shapes are not protected by copyright.
This tag does not generally apply to all images of texts. Particular countries can have different legal definition of the “literary work” as the subject of copyright and different courts' interpretation practices. Some countries protect almost every written work, while other countries protect distinctively artistic or scientific texts and databases only. Extent of creativeness, function and length of the text can be relevant. The copyright protection can be limited to the literary form – the included information itself can be excluded from protection.
Captions
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== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description={{en|1=Cover of ''Suttree'', the fourth novel by American author Cormac McCarthy.}} |Source=[https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/literature-1900-up/cormac-mccarthy-suttree-new-york-random-house-1979-first-edition-first-printing-warmly/a/6108-36321.s ha.com]. Cropped and lightly retouched by uploader. |Date=1979 |Author=Jacket design by Jack Ribik; published by Random House. |Permission=No permission is requi...
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