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The clinch cover is the name for a style of Romance novel cover art. It generally features two people touching or in close proximity, and the art style has its roots in pulp art.
The clinch cover style became popular through the 1970s and 1980s, and originally usually was done by taking a photograph and then painting a scene, but in the modern day it is sometimes done with just photography.
The posing, state of dress, and appearance of the people on the clinch cover is informed by the politics of the era, such as the women's liberation movement. Though the clinch cover usually features a white, heterosexual couple, the style has been used for other book pairings as well. Author Ann Allen Shockley utilized a clinch cover for her 1974 interracial lesbian romance novel Loving Her, and author Beverly Jenkins frequently uses clinch covers for her black romance novels.
Since the 1990s, romance book covers have shifted slowly away from clinch covers, with less focus on or a lack of people on the cover (such as the trend towards landscapes observed in 2001), to cartoon covers in the 21st century.
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