In my last post I mentioned my recent article on Harlequin artists. Here is the article, excluding the list of artists.
As part of Harlequin Enterprise’s 60th
anniversary celebration in 2009 a curtain was slightly drawn back on the many artists
that created the Harlequin covers. Heart
of a Woman, an exhibit first seen in New York and then Las Vegas, highlighted
the work of six artists with samples from many others. Some 150 original works
of art were on display. The exhibit, and attendant publicity, was a rare acknowledgement
of the mostly long-forgotten artists. Here I want to pull back the curtain a
bit more.
Artists for United States paperbacks
have received, thanks to Piet Schreuders (Paperbacks,
U.S.A) and others (e.g., Paperback
Parade, Paperback Quarterly, Illustration), a great deal of attention
over the last 35 years. But, to my knowledge, there isn’t an accurate and
complete list of artists for Harlequin and other early Canadian paperback
publishers. By 1960 Harlequin had virtually
completed the move to an all romance publisher. Over the next fifty-nine years the
art has changed but not the genre. However, the art for the first 500
Harlequins (May 1949 to January 1960) is seen on westerns, mysteries,
thrillers, science fiction, adventure, non-fiction and others, all in glorious midcentury
paperback colour. I have found no evidence that
Harlequin had an art director early in its history. Until mid-1957 the
editorial office was in Toronto while the books were produced in Winnipeg. One
of the owners, Jack Palmer, was the editor until his death in 1954 and may also
have handled art director duties. As seen below nearly all the first 500 covers
were done by Toronto artists. The art often did not reach the level of that on
American paperbacks in the 1950s.
Harlequin did not acknowledge its artists. The
art on 11 of the first 500 covers had been used on an earlier book. The
remaining 489 books included seven covers with photographs and one with only
text, leaving 481 books with original art. The work of at least 32 artists is
seen on these books, some relatively well known, most forgotten and some
anonymous. A surprising 304 (63%) covers are signed by 23 artists (22 men, one
woman), three of whom are known to be alive in 2018. I have identified the likely
artist on 62 of the unsigned covers, meaning 366 (76%) of the covers have
identified art. On the remaining 115 books there are 14 covers with the unknown
initials or unintelligible signatures of nine artists.
D. Rickard - Harlequin 24 - December 1949
Max Ralph - Harlequin 45 - May 1950
Sid Dyke - Harlequin 366 - August 1956
Friede - Harlequin 210 - July 1953
