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10/17/2009 6:58:50 PM
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John E. Rogers, Jr.
Posts 1325
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Subtitled "A Heady Brew of Science-Fiction Stories"
Published by Ballantine Books in 1961
Paperback edition arrived with today's mail. Very good condition. White-backgrounded, modern-artish cover by someone named Powers (no credit given in the book). Depicts some kind of pink-blooded, black-nucleused space amoeba. From my glance at the rear cover, where Farmer's The Lovers, Van Vogt's Slan, and Anderson's Strangers from Earth, are mini-paneled, looks like this Powers did the covers for those books as well. A faintly sensual yet blobby feel.
Title lettering a tad too Lost in Spacesque. Still, pleasant to look at.
This'll be my thread for commenting on the stories in this thin volume.
FIRST LESSON
Published in Collier's
No date given. My guess: mid-fifties.
Set either in WWII or a very similar follow-up conflict. Woman lives with her enlisted paratrooper husband in a boarding house outside an Air Force base somewhere in the deep south. Little bit of Flannery O'Connor. but more of Harper Lee. That sort of town. She is plagued by a recurring, uncannily realistic nightmare involving one of her husband's night jumps. Story is about the unexpected offer of "help" she receives from the residence's young black maid. A twist within a twist tale, with the final turn unexpected even by me -- and I'm always looking. A horror-fantasy piece, with its black terror residing in its crisp drawing of reality, not the vague supernatural forces which are at play.
Loved this woman Clingerman's style. It's mature. I mean - this was written by a real grown-up. Someone who has lived life. Experienced worry and dread. She's got a nice, uncluttered way. Not exactly elegant, though the writing is classy. Not exactly sophisticated, though the point of view is that of an educated, intelligent woman. Adult. With an understated take on the magic that is seemingly worked.
In short, good stuff.
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10/17/2009 7:46:47 PM
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WPreston
Posts 651
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How'd you come to order this book?
Can you give us the TOC?
(And whenever you're ready to go on the Brunner thread, I'm set to comment.)
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http://wmpreston.blogspot.com
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10/17/2009 7:49:56 PM
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WPreston
Posts 651
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Oh. Never mind on the TOC. For some reason, I mistook the book for an anthology.
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http://wmpreston.blogspot.com
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10/17/2009 8:00:31 PM
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John E. Rogers, Jr.
Posts 1325
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Clingerman came up in another thread. On a lark, I decided to order a collection of her short stories. Glad I did.
Here's the Table of Contents:
First Lesson (Collier's)
Stickeney and the Critic (F&SF)
Stair Trick (F&SF)
Minister without Portfolio (F&SF)
Birds Can't Count (F&SF)
The Word (F&SF)
The Day of the Green Velvet Cloak (F&SF)
Winning Recipe (Collier's)
Letters from Laura (F&SF)
The Last Prophet (F&SF)
Mr. Sakrison's Halt (F&SF)
The Wild Wood (F&SF)
The Little Witch of Elm Street (Woman's Home Companion)
A Day for Waving (F&SF)
The Gay Deceiver (Original to the collection)
A Red Heart and Blue Roses (Original to the collection)
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10/17/2009 8:20:38 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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How quickly this field forgets. At one point, Richard Powers was one of the top two or three cover artists for SF books. During the '60s and '70s, and even into the '80s, a significant percentage of all SF book covers were done by Richard Powers, considered to be the man who introduced "surrealism" or non-representational art into the SF publishing world.
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10/17/2009 8:27:58 PM
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John E. Rogers, Jr.
Posts 1325
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Ouch! But - the sad truth is I'm to blame - not the field. That's my own ignorance showing through.
I did like the cover, by the way - and I usually don't care much for non-representational work.
gdozois wrote:
How quickly this field forgets. At one point, Richard Powers was one of the top two or three cover artists for SF books. During the '60s and '70s, and even into the '80s, a significant percentage of all SF book covers were done by Richard Powers, considered to be the man who introduced "surrealism" or non-representational art into the SF publishing world.
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10/17/2009 8:47:28 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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Too tell you the truth, I was never wildly enthusiastic about Richard Powers cover art, as I don't much like non-representational work myself. Always prefered Ed Emshwiller or Frank Kelly Freas, or, of course, Chesley Bonestell. Nevertheless, Powers was one of the best known SF cover artists of his day.
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10/17/2009 8:53:23 PM
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WPreston
Posts 651
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I love this stuff:
Richard M. Powers
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http://wmpreston.blogspot.com
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10/17/2009 9:42:37 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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Another of the classic SF cover artists, Ed Valigursky, just died. About all the prominent ones from the '50s and '60s are dead now, I think.
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10/17/2009 9:45:16 PM
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Dave_Truesdale
Posts 417
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Without drifting too far from topic, and as a quick question to Gardner (or anyone else), where might you place Paul Lehr in relationship to Powers? I also loved the artwork of Freas, Powers, Bonestell, and Emsh, but I think from around the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s I'd rank Paul Lehr in there too. At least with the standing of Powers, if not Freas, Emsh, and Bonestell. I think Lehr did most (if not all) of the paperback covers for Damon's Orbit series, and his wonderful book covers seemed to be everywhere for many years. Though totally different, stylistically, than Powers, Lehr's covers nevertheless had a unique artisitc "stamp" to them that made them instantly recognizable.
Here's a link to just one site with nine of his book covers, showing his work on novels from Simak, Vance, Asimov, Vinge, and others.
http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/?tag=paul-lehr
Scroll quickly past the first three or four images from another artist and you'll come to the Lehr covers.
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"When any category of science fiction writing has become dull and repetitive, there is always a brilliant story waiting to be written by giving up the assumptions that made the story easy to write." --Damon Knight
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10/17/2009 10:05:12 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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I liked Lehr better than Powers, usually. I once got a Lehr cover for one of my books, the cover for the original American edition of NIGHTMARE BLUE. During the '70s, when David Hartwell was in charge of the Berkley Books line, almost all the covers were done either by Lehr or by Powers. We authors of the period used to refer to Lehr's stuff as "Big Eyeball" covers--almost all of them featured a big, round, eyeball-like object in the front center of the visual area. (Of course, Berkley authors, rather unkindly, refered to the later Powers covers as "oozing cancer sore" covers; the ones I knew, at least, prefered to get Lehr.)
Looks like Lehr may still be alive. At least, he had a pretty recent LiveJournal entry. If so, he may be the last of the famous SF cover artists from the '60s and '70s left alive.
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10/17/2009 10:13:47 PM
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Dave_Truesdale
Posts 417
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Thanks, Gardner. Yes, Lehr's covers were always recognizable for having globes, or spheres, or as you guys called them, Big Eyeball covers. I always thought they were beautiful.
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"When any category of science fiction writing has become dull and repetitive, there is always a brilliant story waiting to be written by giving up the assumptions that made the story easy to write." --Damon Knight
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10/17/2009 10:35:12 PM
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WPreston
Posts 651
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gdozois wrote:
Looks like Lehr may still be alive.
Died in '98, per this.
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http://wmpreston.blogspot.com
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10/17/2009 10:42:25 PM
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Lukas Jackson
Posts 525
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Even though Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2 deals with AI, most would probably not consider it SF.
Just kidding.
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http://darkerblogistan.livejournal.com
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10/17/2009 10:44:08 PM
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Dave_Truesdale
Posts 417
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Thanks for the link, William. Nice obit by Eggleton.
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"When any category of science fiction writing has become dull and repetitive, there is always a brilliant story waiting to be written by giving up the assumptions that made the story easy to write." --Damon Knight
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10/17/2009 10:47:56 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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I think they're all gone, then, all that crew of famous SF/fantasy cover artists.
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10/17/2009 10:51:29 PM
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WPreston
Posts 651
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Screwing up this thread even more (sorry, John), didn't this Lehr cover get used on some other work, like maybe a Clarke collection of stories (Nine Billion Names of God?)?
Farmer cover.
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http://wmpreston.blogspot.com
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10/17/2009 11:13:10 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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There you have not so much a Big Eyeball as a Big Eggplant.
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10/18/2009 1:19:53 AM
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John E. Rogers, Jr.
Posts 1325
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WPreston wrote:
That really is a pretty cool cover to Sturgeon's More Than Human!
The first of the "Powers's women" looks a bit like a mummified Jane Russell.
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10/18/2009 10:53:33 AM
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WPreston
Posts 651
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gdozois wrote:
There you have not so much a Big Eyeball as a Big Eggplant.
I was seeing more a moldy cauliflower . . .
Do you recognize that cover from another book?
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http://wmpreston.blogspot.com
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