Out of Gass

February 21, 2009 10:02 PM

Can you identify the artist responsible for this book cover?

The book is an old paperback copy of William Gass' In The Heart of the Heart of the Country. I find the art weirdly moving, but there's no indication of who the artist is. Anyone know?

posted by symbebekos to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Maybe ask the publisher? From the cover, it was Pocket Books, which is part of Simon & Schuster.
posted by gudrun at 12:08 AM on February 22, 2009

It looks exactly like the sort of cover art you'd see on old Zane Grey paperbacks, which were also published by Pocket. I'd say there's at least a decent chance this was someone in Pocket/S&S's stable of staff illustrators.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 6:38 AM on February 22, 2009

I was going to say something similar to the Emperor. If there's no cover art credit (would be on the back cover probably), then it might have been created in-house. Is there a "cover design by" credit? (This assumes you actually have a copy of the book with you, of course).
posted by lampoil at 6:50 AM on February 22, 2009

Leif Peng has an awesome blog called Today's Inspiration that features older illustrations in that style. He's a veritable font of illustrator knowledge (and a real nice guy); I'd ask him.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 10:43 AM on February 22, 2009