All Alone, with Trouble in Mind

Book titles containing the word “widow” suddenly seem to be everywhere on my radar. March brought the publication of Alma Katsu’s “gripping, authentic spy procedural,” Red Widow (Putnam), and earlier this month saw the re-release (by Cutting Edge Books) of Louis Lorraine’s 1961 sleaze classic, Commuter Widow. Soon after I downloaded the inarguably not-safe-for-work front cover of that new Commuter Widow edition, I had cause to search for it again in my computer files … and came up with a slew of attractive vintage novels also featuring “widow” in their names.

I’m sorry to say that I don’t know the name of the artist whose remarkable work fronts the 1958 Crest printing of Richard Wormser’s The Widow Wore Red, shown above. But I can identify the painters of most of the paperback covers below, from Bill George (Black Widow, 1954) and Harry Barton (both the undated Exciting Widow and the yarn from which it swiped its art, 1963’s That Kind of Widow) to Ernest “Darcy” Chiriacka (Self-Made Widow, 1958, and 1963’s The Torrid Widow), Bob Hilbert (1953’s Night at the Mocking Widow), and Robert McGinnis (the undated Suddenly a Widow, by George Harmon Coxe, and 1966’s No Tears from the Widow, by Carter Brown).

Charles Copeland gave us the cover for Rick Holmes’ New Widow (1963), while Weekend Widows (1966) boasts a front painted by Al Rossi, and Paul Rader is credited with creating the image for Wayward Widow (1962). You’re looking at Clark Hulings’ work on 1957’s The Golden Widow, James Meese’s artistry decorating 1957 Pocket release of Ursula Curtiss’ The Widow’s Web, and the talents of Mort Engel showcased on the 1965 Ace version of that same Curtiss tale. Finally, Griffith Foxley was responsible for the painting that introduces the 1954 Dell release of Dolores Hitchens’ Widows Won’t Wait (a singularly Erle Stanley Gardner-ish title); Mitchell Hooks was behind the 1955 Bantam cover of The Widow and the Web, by Robert Martin; and the great Walter Popp imagined the candelabra-wielding redhead on Evelyn Bond’s Widow in White (1973).

Click on any of the images here for an enlargement.

READ MORE: “Review: The Widow,” by Steven J. McDermott (Mostly Old Books and Rust).

The Rising Cost of Dying

One for the Money, by Elliott Chaze (Berkley Medallion, 1962), originally titled Black Wings Has My Angel; cover art by Charles Copeland. Two for the Money, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime, 2004); cover illustration by Mark Texeira.


Three for the Money, by “Joe Barry,” aka Joe Barry Lake (Quinn Publishing/Handi-Book Mystery, 1950), the one and only novel featuring Chicago private eye Bill August; cover painting reportedly by Ernest Chiriacka. Four for the Money, by Dan J. Marlowe (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1966); cover artist unidentified.

Go Ahead, Give Her a Spin

Hell on Wheels, by by “W.E. Butterworth,” aka W.E.B. Griffin (Berkley, 1962). Cover illustration by Charles Copeland.

Sites for Sore Eyes

• When Michael Callahan remarks, in Vanity Fair, that “Much of the public doesn’t know Robert McGinnis,” he is certainly not talking about yours truly. In Killer Covers I’ve frequently highlighted the work of that now 91-year-old Connecticut book and magazine artist, including in a series of posts last year timed to McGinnis’ 90th birthday. In addition, I wrote about his more than half-century-long career for the Kirkus Reviews Web site, and followed that piece up with a longer one in The Rap Sheet. It’s actually Callahan who seems a bit late in showcasing McGinnis and his talents. Nonetheless, his new Vanity Fair feature is welcome, recapping the painter’s years spent building his reputation, noting the artist’s “pathological modesty,” and winning some rare face time with the man who gave us “the McGinnis Woman.” Give the piece a read.

• Although I’ve never watched the 1978 grindhouse flick Mardi Gras Massacre—which Every ’70s Movie blogger Peter Hanson describes as “a sexed-up horror picture with so much nasty gore that it received an X-rating during its original release”—I have periodically come across the promotional poster displayed on the right. Inspired by Hanson’s brutal recent takedown of the movie (“Mardi Gras Massacre offers crappy filmmaking, exploitive nude scenes, and rotten acting”), I scouted the Web in search of an artist’s credit for this stunning work, only to come across it here on Southern California bookseller and books historian Lynn Munroe’s site. It seems responsibility for that poster image belongs to Charles Copeland (1924-1979), a prolific magazine and book-cover illustrator during the 20th century about whom I have written, well, not nearly enough on this page.

• During the mid-20th century, it seems that Australia-based Horwitz Publications was in the “habit of using celebrities on its Carter Brown paperback covers.” Pulp International has slowly but quite surely been racking up a collection of those, including this appearance by U.S. actress Mamie Van Doren on Strictly for Felony (1956) and this showing by Lili St. Cyr on Homicide Harem (1965), along with sightings of Elke Sommer, Joan Collins, and Senta Berger.

• “A lusty novel about Florida crackers”?

• Illustration Press is readying the release, in July, of The Life and Art of Bernie Fuchs, by David Apatoff, a 240-page, full-color book containing more than 300 illustrations, all devoted to the life and artistic skills of Bernie Fuchs (1932-2009). Selections of his advertising and magazine work are featured, along with his portraiture. (He did a variety of TV Guide covers.) You can page through a low-resolution version of the book here.

• Back in 2008, Penguin UK released fresh editions of Ian Fleming’s James Bond spy novels, all with beautiful covers by Michael Gillette. Since then, Gillette has also created new fronts for German publisher Cross Cult of John Gardner’s 14 original Bond continuation tales. A number of those can be enjoyed here, with the latest—for Gardner’s 1991 novel, The Man from Barbarossa—shown here.

Duped: “The Lash”

The latest installment in Killer Covers’ “haven’t we seen this front someplace before?” series. Previous entries are here.



I knew I’d spotted the byline “John Burton Thompson” before, and sure enough, that same moniker appears on the cover of Nude in the Sand, a 1959 Beacon Books release that I showcased a couple of years ago. There isn’t much information on the Web about Thompson, beyond the fact that his name appears on other such “literary gems” as Lakeside Love Nest, The Couch Cure, and The Ravished. However, the professional responsible for the seductive front of The Lash (Softcover Library), a “lesbian pulp” novel from 1965, is extremely familiar: Charles Copeland (1924-1979), a prolific Missouri-born artist of the mid-20th century who, in addition to churning out pin-up-style illustrations for men’s magazines, did a great deal of work for paperback book publishers such as Ace, Popular Library, and of course Softcover (an imprint of Beacon, one of the last century’s most successful soft-core paperback publishers)

So prized were Copeland’s paintings, that Beacon editors decided the one employed on The Lash--displaying a slender, half-dressed brunette curled up a couch, with expectation in her eyes (presumably focused on the bare-midriffed woman whose reflection can be seen in the mirror behind her)--would be wasted were it used just once. In fact, the same artwork had already graced a 1963 Beacon novel titled The Sexecutives, by Lee Richards. (Shown on the right--click for an enlargement.) There’s a difference, though: Rather than a woman in the mirror, The Sexecutives shows the reflection of a power-suited blond manager type lighting a cigarette. As that book’s cover lines attest, Richards’ yarn was about “high-powered executives who tried everything for kicks. Now they went on a new one--wife-trading.” It seems “the mark of their success was the key to the right apartment.” Should anyone miss the suggestion in all of this that The Sexecutives was not the sort of story to be left lying around on a coffee table when company calls, the novel’s concluding come-on line reads, “A novel of big business that makes The Carpetbaggers look simon-pure.”

Apparently Beacon knew its primarily male readership well, for The Sexecutives satisfied not only its audience in America, but also book-buyers in Australia, where--under the title “See Me Tonight!”--this novel was one of many about “high-flying corporate execs behaving badly.”

The Heat Is On: Two Hot to Handle

Celebrating the delights of summer. Click here for the full set.



Two Hot to Handle, by Ed Lacy (Paperback Library, 1963)--contains two novellas, “The Coin of Adventure” and “Murder in Paradise.” Illustration by Charles Copeland.