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Above: a cover for Le diable est mon cousin by Le Roy Irving (surely a pseudonym), published by Éditions Baudelaire as part of its Collection Détective Pocket in 1963. This is highly successful art, but uncredited.
This is pretty nice work by French illustrator James Hodges for Éditions Baudelaire and its Détective Pocket edition of William Ard’s Donne moi cette femme. It’s copyright 1963, and bears Hodges’ signature on the lower left of the front cover.
The title translates as “give me this woman.” Usually French retitles are wildly different from the English originals, but this is a rare case where that isn’t true. This book is the French version of Ard’s 1962 thriller Give Me This Woman.
We’ve talked about Ard, aka Ben Kerr, aka Mike Moran, et al before. We especially enjoyed Hell Is a City, When She Was Bad, and Club 17. Luckily, we also have four more of his efforts awaiting attention on our shelves. In short: we think he’s great. Read anything you can find by him.
James Hodges was a prolific artist who worked not only in publishing, but advertising, television, set design, puppet making, and live special effects, at one point designing the visuals for Christian Fechner’s Grand Guignol at the famed Théâtre de l’Européen. Later in his multi-faceted career he even delved into illusion and stage direction. We’ve shared many of his pieces, and you can see a few here and here. He’ll surely pop up on our website again.
Above: a cover for Poupée de chair, 1963, by Hans J. Nordling, from Éditions Baudelaire—not to be confused with the publisher currently partnered with Hatchette. In French “poupée” means doll, and “chair” means flesh, so there’s your title in English—”flesh doll.” The book deals with a woman trapped in an unconsummated marriage, whose rival for her husband’s affections is her own mother. How very French. We like the art on this, which we’re going to say with a high degree of confidence was painted by James Hodges. It was cropped from a larger piece, we suspect, because his femme fatale is reaching for a gun you can barely see at lower right. See more from Hodges here, here, and here.
Above are some covers from French publishers Éditions Baudelaire, specifically four entries from its collection Le Chat Noir, or Black Cat, written by various authors, and with cover art by Jacques Thibésart, who signed his work as Mik. The authors were pseudonyms too—or at least, Georges Méra and César Valentino were, which makes us pretty sure the others were, as well. Sharp eyed readers will notice that Thibésart was inspired by Hollywood’s film noir wave. The first cover is definitely Dick Powell, and the male on the third cover has to be Alan Ladd from This Gun for Hire. Right? Or is that just us? Thibésart seems to have switched out Ladd’s co-star Veronica Lake, though, because the female figure doesn’t look anything like her. Oh, it’s all such a riddle with these pen names and borrowed faces. In any case, nice art. These were all published in 1959.
The first assembly of the League of Nations, the multi-governmental organization formed as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, is held in Geneva, Switzerland. The League begins to fall apart less than fifteen years later when Germany withdraws. By the onset of World War II it is clear that the League has failed completely.
Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas by Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. The events would be used by author Truman Capote for his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, which is considered a pioneering work of true crime writing. The book is later adapted into a film starring Robert Blake.
Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia, which features eight animated segments set to classical music, is first seen by the public in New York City at the Broadway Theatre. Though appreciated by critics, the movie fails to make a profit due to World War II cutting off European revenues. However it remains popular and is re-released several times, including in 1963 when, with the approval of Walt Disney himself, certain racially insulting scenes were removed. Today Fantasia is considered one of Disney’s greatest achievements and an essential experience for movie lovers.
British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his men are found frozen to death on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, where they had been pinned down and immobilized by bad weather, hunger and fatigue. Scott’s expedition, known as the Terra Nova expedition, had attempted to be the first to reach the South Pole only to be devastated upon finding that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them there by five weeks. Scott wrote in his diary: “The worst has happened. All the day dreams must go. Great God! This is an awful place.”
Hugh Gray takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster while walking back from church along the shore of the Loch near the town of Foyers. Only one photo came out, but of all the images of the monster, this one is considered by believers to be the most authentic.
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai massacre, which had occurred in Vietnam more than a year-and-a-half earlier but been covered up by military officials. That day, U.S. soldiers killed between 350 and 500 unarmed civilians, including women, the elderly, and infants. The event devastated America’s image internationally and galvanized the U.S. anti-war movement. For Hersh’s efforts he received a Pulitzer Prize.
