Astute readers may recognize my Blogger avatar as being from the cover of a 1970s-era paperback edition of Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game. The editions of nearly all of Hesse's books that I own are from this time, when the English translations were published by Bantam Books in the US. Fresh from Hesse's rediscovery by 1960s hippie culture, the back covers of this time gush about how "The Hesse Phenomenon" appeals both to the underground and to the establishment, man! (Well, without the "man.") :-)The art on the front covers of these Bantam paperbacks has always intrigued me. They were usually done up in a lush, Romantic style, which contrasted with their stark white backgrounds. The images ran the gamut from the dull and dreamy to the surreal and freaky, but there was a unity of style that (to me) suggested they were all done by one artist. For fun, I rounded up as many of them as I could find via Google Images and assembled them into a collage...
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The 15 images are in as close to chronological order as I could figure, with three multi-decade anthologies all put on the bottom left. In any case, the top two rows are in exactly the order that Hesse published them, so it was totally not my doing to artfully arrange the oddball blue-covered version of Siddhartha right in the center! :-)
Out of the 6 or 7 of these that I've actually read, it's interesting how my perceptions of the books are flavored by these images. The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi), for example, can be pretty dry in places, but those floating beads and the colorful scene behind Hatty McMustache, there, help fuel the imagination. This seems related to an ongoing discussion in the RPG blogosphere about art in game books, too... Is it just extraneous fluff, or does it serve to get those creative juices flowing? A little bit of quality is worth tons of page-padding quantity.
But the big question is: Who is the artist (or artists)? I wish I knew! The books themselves don't give any attributions for the cover art. I did find a web page that claims the artist for the covers of Demian, Beneath the Wheel, and Narcissus & Goldmund was someone named William Edwards. However, such a common name brings up many hits that makes it difficult to learn more. My two favorites -- Journey to the East and The Glass Bead Game -- do appear different enough from those other three that they could conceivably be from a different artist. If anyone reading this has additional information, please comment or contact me. I'd love to give proper attribution for my own avatar! :-)
Images influence our perceptions far more than we realize? When I first came upon Servitor Ludi, I subconsciously assumed you were a redhead. Then you mentioned a redhead in one of the early posts I read and had that bias/assumption 'confirmed.'
ReplyDeleteI find myself wanting to 'think' more 'in pictures,' these days. Words, lifelong bosom buddies, have suddenly become aliens.
Even that isn't quite right but ... whatever.
Extraordinary cover art, Cyg. Nice collage.
I'm sure I've used the phrase "red-headed stepchild," but probably not in the best of connotations. Apologies to all gingers out there! :-)
DeleteWe all need a break from words now and again.
Wow! I am also just trying to track down this artist. Thanks for your work--I'll see what I can find out and let you know.
ReplyDelete--David Dodd
Librarian
Sonoma County Library, California
Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/56781833@N06/8108773371/) showing several of these covers has this citation:
DeleteHermann Hesse - Demian
Bantam Books T7734, 1974
Cover Artist: William Edwards
Cover artist source: Thomas L. Bonn - Undercover: An Illustrated History of American Mass Market Paperbacks Plate 27a
My library doesn't own this book, but it looks like an accurate citation. Now to try to find more about that artist.
Hello, a friend just sent me a link to you; the artist is my father, William A. Edwards, of CT; and I actually posed for a few of these (family members are cheap models :-);
Deletehe did many covers for Bantam.
defythemachin3: I've always admired your father's work and consider him to be one of the best illustrators I've ever come across. I use his work as examples in the illustration classes I teach, as well. I'd love to learn more about your father and his work. I'd love to talk with you, if you would be so kind as to reply to me.
DeleteDear "defythemachin3": I don't know whether you will receive this comment (via e-mail) after all these years, but if you do, I am trying to confirm whether your father painted the cover for Bantam's 1968 edition of Hermann Hesse's "Serenade," by James M. Cain. You can see that cover here: https://jkpclips.blogspot.com/2018/12/serenade-by-james-m-cain-bantam-1968.html
DeletePlease let me know what you think, via e-mail, at jpwrites@wordcuts.org
I appreciate any help you can provide in this matter.
Cheers,
Jeff Pierce
Hello defythemachine. You probably knew me when I was a little kid. Our fathers were close friends in the late 50s through the 60s. We have visited you in Maine and I spent many an hour at your house in CT playing with toys and watching Astroboy and Supercar on your TV. We didn't have a TV then. I hope you are well. Your dad made a portrait of my sister when she was little and it remains a treasure. I think the last time I saw him was when he came to Madison around 1990.
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ReplyDeleteWow... thanks for the replies, everyone. I hope I've been able to help people learn more about the great work of Mr. Edwards.
ReplyDeletedefythemachin3: If you and/or your father would ever consider collecting nice reproductions of these covers -- and the untold stories behind them -- into a book, I'm sure there would be an audience for it.
that's a nice idea, my dad is still alive, (turns 89 Sat), I don't know how much he remembers, but I'm going to think about that. unfortunately, years ago, his agent lost his proofs, and he has very few examples of his work, so that might be the hard part. I know that Bantam had his work hanging on the walls, and I wonder what happened to those paintings. If you like, I'll try to post some other covers.
Deleteand thank you for your kind words, (you could 'tell a book' by his cover, he always read the books first)
Wow, what a fun string of comments to stumble upon while trying to identify the artist of the Hesse covers. I recently read "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" and the cover also resembles his work some. You can definitely tell he actually read the books and got accurate impressions of the characters. It's spooky how much life he imbues them with. Hope all is well!
Deletehttp://pictures.abebooks.com/BOOKABYSS/10222949265.jpg
Thanks! That cover is so similar... it must have been Edwards, too.
DeleteYes! He did the cover for the Carson McCullers book too =)
DeleteHey defythemachine3,
ReplyDeleteI just met your father. I was interviewing him as part of my Montessori Secondary Teacher Education training in CT. I am going to see him again on Friday to finish up the project. I was trying to find and or confirm that I had accurately found a sample or samples of his artwork in order to possibly create something for him as a thank-you for participating in the project. I, too am an illustrator so I want to be sure I have found samples of his work or even find more so I could get a feel for his style of illustration to pay homage to his work. Any help or links to illustration by your father would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
MonkeyBoy
Thanks for the update, MonkeyBoy. It makes me happy to hear that Mr. Edwards is still out there inspiring the next generation of artists. Please feel free to leave any other thoughts, or links to your related work, here.
DeleteWas there every any further followup with the artist? Would love to know. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNothing that I've heard. Pretty much all communication that I've seen has been in this comment section. Anyone else, please feel free to chime in, no matter when you might happen to visit again.
DeleteI have a variant cover of Siddartha, it is black with a painting of a young man sitting under a tree. Trying to find any kind of info about it, but can't even find another picture of my edition online.
DeleteInteresting! Is it a Bantam paperback, of a similar style as the ones pictured in this post? If so, I'd be curious to see a picture of it. If you then post it online, it would help future searchers. :-)
DeleteMany of these covers were painted in my childhood home in Maine. The artist was living with my mother at the time. I believe that his daughter Beth also posed for some of these paintings. I stumbled across this thread because I was curious about what happened to this person who I lived with for several years as a child.
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating to see how the internet can bring together people who were associated with this artist over the years. I wonder what's become of those original paintings.
DeleteThe art is by Bill Edwards. When Bantam was still in the 666 building in NYC, they had a bunch of his originals up on the walls. He worked in egg tempera. In 1995, my late husband, Milton Charles, was curating a show at the Hunterdon Museum called, The Fine Art of Illustration, and we looked very hard for Bill Edwards, trying to track him down, but couldn't.
ReplyDeleteThanks! The responses to this post have been accumulating slowly over the last 4 years. Have a look at some of the others above... there are some other friends & relatives of Mr. Edwards up there.
Deletelisafalkenstern Sorry to hear that you didn't find him. I've been considering trying to get a local museum to do a show on his covers. (And a lot of his work was in oils too.)
DeleteBill Edwards was the brilliant painter who made these covers. He was a friend of my father's Harry bennett, the illustrtor. He gave my father an original which i now have in my possession.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Thanks for commenting. I'm amazed how this (now) 7-year-old thread has brought together a wealth of info and memories of this fantastic painter.
DeleteTom Bennett - I'd love to see it, do you have a photo? I'm his youngest daughter (and frequent model, lol). Is / was your father located in the northeast (USA)?
DeleteI'm so sorry for your loss. His memory and brilliant work will persist.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and thanks for this thread!! (His daughter / model =)
DeleteWilliam Edwards work had a strong influence on many illustrators. The Hesse books were classic, magical and blurred the lines between fine art and illustration. I recall meeting with Bantams legendary art director Len Leoni and seeing Edwards work on the wall. I’ve always attributed the painting done for Of Mice and Men to him as well. I just finished an interview for the Newington Cropsey Cultural Studies Center, naming Edwards as a major influence in the direction of my work. I’ve painted covers for over 700 books, his work was a benchmark for me. I attempted to look him up in the 90’s, unsuccessfully. I’m sorry I never met him.
ReplyDeleteGlenn Harrington
Thanks for dropping by with these thoughts, Glenn. I'm still kind of gobsmacked that I created this post 7 years ago -- knowing nothing at all about Edwards -- to now having so many voices chime in about his amazing legacy.
DeleteI suspect the Mice & Men cover is the one here:
Deletehttps://openlibrary.org/books/OL7823460M/Of_Mice_and_Men
Google pulled up an old Bantam paperback of Butterfield 8, but it didn't look quite like Edwards' style.
Yes, that is it. No doubt about it.
DeleteHere is a current link to the Butterfield 8 cover that is definitely his:
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24959341M/BUtterfield_8
Difficult to find covers where the white has not yellowed or aged well.
Cygnus - yes, that Mice 7 Men cover is his! =) (daughter here ;-)
DeleteThis cover from Lady Chatterly's Lover is definitely his:
ReplyDeletehttps://openlibrary.org/works/OL16793645W/Lady_Chatterly's_lover?edition=
and I have some miscellaneous pictures and doc of him from when he started as an instructor for the "scandalous" Famous Artists School for anyone interested.
Recognition Hi, unfortunately your link above doesn't show the cover, but I have a photo if you want to see it, and I have one of the blank greeting cards made with this cover. I was around 10 when I posed for my father for that cover.
DeleteSally, I don't know if you will get this, but this is Bill's daughter Beth (defythemachin3) - hello!! I hope you and your brother are well. (yes, I did model for some of them, so, obviously, he painted some in CT, and some in ME, lol)
ReplyDeleteGreetings to all who've contributed to this thread, especially Cygnus for starting it, the sleuths who discovered the artist to be Bill Edwards, and perhaps best of all, the contributions of Beth and Sally. Over the past few days I've been in contact with Jerad Walters of Centipede Press, and he's expressed interest in featuring an article about Bill Edwards for the Weird Fiction Review. Beth and Sally, you're clearly the ones who could contribute most about Bill's work, though it seems some other people in this thread may have worked with him. If you would like to contact Jared, his email is jared@centipedepress.com. Personally I and probably many others here would love to see a tribute to Bill's talent. Thank you all for making his name known to me.
ReplyDeleteT
Nepenthe thank you so much for reaching out (Beth here)! I will try to reach out to Jerad to see if he's still interested. =)
DeleteApologies; Jerad’s email is jerad@centipedepress.com
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ReplyDelete