Star Weekly Novel Part IV

I've been able to find title/author information for 1460 Star Weekly Novels, 80% of the estimated 1880 published. So far I have identified the artwork on only 93 issues. There are 34 separate artists. Here are some examples.

Dance Without Music is illustrated by Mabel McDermott (?-?).  

Stranger in the Little House has an illustration by someone well known to readers of this blog - Harlequin cover artist Paul Anna Soik (1919-1999).

Where is Jenny Now? - art by American George Sottung (1927-1999). Here is more on this novel.

Star Weekly Complete Novel - December 3, 1960

Star Weekly Complete Novel - September 11, 1948

Star Weekly Complete Novel - January 11, 1958

Harlequin and Victor Mature

In an earlier post, Noel Coward, I talked about the artist Paul Anna Soik's use of a celebrity's image on one of the many covers he created for Harlequin Books in the 1950s. Here is another, the actor Victor Mature.

Another example from an early PBO published by Penguin Books of New York is below. The copy shown is the more uncommon second printing from October 1947. The image, by Robert Jonas, is identical to the August 1947 first printing but the movie, staring Mature, is referenced at the top unlike the first printing. The movie was also released in August 1947.

 

Harlequin 420 -  April 1958

 

Harlequin 420 back

 

Penguin (US) 642 - October 1947

 

Penguin (US) 642 back

Harlequin Artists Part XXVIII - Paul Anna Soik (4)

Since I've started this series of posts on early Harlequin artist Paul Anna Soik some information on him has found its way to the Internet. He was born (1919) and died (1999) in New Jersey and served in the American Armed Forces during WWII. He started working for Harlequin in 1954, illustrating 90 covers before the end of 1959 and many after, and attended the Ontario College of Art in Toronto in the 1950s. Here are covers 16 through 20.

Harlequin 316

Harlequin 315 - September 1954

Harlequin 316 - October 1954

Harlequin 318 - October 1954



Harlequin 320 - January 1955

Harlequin 321 - September 1954

Harlequin Artists Part XIV - Paul Anna Soik (3)

Paul Anna Soik drew 90 of the 478 illustrated covers Harlequin Books published between 1949 and 1959. Here are books 11 through 15.

Harlequin 307 - July 1954

Harlequin 308 - July 1954

Harlequin 311 - August 1954

Harlequin 312 - August 1954

Harlequin 314 - September 1954

Harlequin Artists Part XIII

Here's an example of an unknown artist borrowing from an earlier Harlequin cover by Paul Anna Soik.

Harlequin 382 - March 1957

Harlequin 390 detail

Harlequin 390 - May 1957

Harlequin Artists Part X - Paul Anna Soik (2)

Paul Anna Soik illustrated 90 covers for Harlequin Books from 1954 to 1959 and many after that. In the first post I showed the first four covers. Here are the next six.

Harlequin 288 - March 1954

Harlequin 290 - April 1954

Harlequin 293 - April 1954

Harlequin 301 - May 1954

Harlequin 303 - June 1954

Harlequin 306 - June 1954

Harlequin and Noel Coward

Noel Coward wrote one novel - Pomp and Circumstance (London: William Heinemann, 1960). Not surprisingly it was never reprinted by Harlequin Books. But Coward did make an appearance on the cover of a Harlequin Book.

Harlequin 436 - September 1958

Harlequin 436 back

Harlequin Artists Part IV - Paul Anna Soik (1)

Harlequin Books published 497 books between May 1949 and December 1959. Eleven covers were reprinted and eight books had text or photo only covers leaving 478 covers with new art.

Of all the long forgotten artists who whose work is seen on the first ten years of Harlequin Books no one did more covers than Paul Anna Soik. He was one of six artists in the 2009 Harlequin Cover exhibition. I have learned nothing about him.

The cover of Conflict by E. V. Timms was the first of Soik's 90 (18.8% of the total) for Harlequin to the end of 1959. Here is that cover plus the second through fourth of his covers.

Harlequin 276 - February 1954

Harlequin 280 - April 1954

Harlequin 283 - March 1954

Harlequin 287 - March 1954