Above is another beautiful piece painted by Benedetto Caroselli, a man we’re going to go ahead and anoint one of the greatest paperback cover artists of all time. His work on Richard Walker’s Nodo scorsoio—which means “slipknot”—is simply brilliant, with its red tressed, black dressed femme fatale, and graphic background elements. It dates from 1962 for Grandi Edizioni Internazionali‘s collection I Gialli dell’Ossessione, and is number ninety-seven in the series. The book was translated from Richard Walker’s original English text by Domenico Vitali, and once again we suspected the translator was the author, since we’re pretty sure this book was never actually released in English, thus would never have needed a translator. After some searching we confirmed our suspicions—Vitali wrote as Walker on several occasions, including two novels for Éditions S.E.P.’s P.J. Police collection. We’re going to keep digging up art by Benedetto Caroselli because it’s all good—every piece we’ve seen. You can see more of his work by clicking his keywords below.
1939—Five-Year Old Girl Gives Birth
In Peru, five-year old Lina Medina becomes the world’s youngest confirmed mother at the age of five when she gives birth to a boy via a caesarean section necessitated by her small pelvis. Six weeks earlier, Medina had been brought to the hospital because her parents were concerned about her increasing abdominal size. Doctors originally thought she had a tumor, but soon determined she was in her seventh month of pregnancy. Her son is born underweight but healthy, however the identity of the father and the circumstances of Medina’s impregnation never become public.