We can all agree that propaganda is bad. Right? But wait, let me ask you: what about literary propaganda? That is, what if you encounter a poster, and it slyly, via trickery, encourages you to read more, or visit your library, or—gasp—spend some of that hard-earned money on a book? Well, that must be evil. Except instead, it is awesome—and so are some of the pieces of propaganda in question. Below, a necessarily incomplete collection of old posters—some created by literary masters like Maurice Sendak and Chris Van Allsburg, others by great artists like Keith Haring, that celebrate and promote literary causes and events: Book Week, your local library, the now-defunct New York is Book Country festival, and reading in general. Scroll on, and if you find yourself swayed by the sneaky rhetoric and brightly-colored images, well—good.