It seems time for another themed cover collection, so today we’re sharing some of the scores of Asian styled mid-century paperback fronts we’ve seen. Much of the fiction here is offensive on some level, but then quite a bit of the old literature falls into that category. The art, on the other hand, is somewhat easier to look at dispassionately. So we have thirty-two paperback covers revealing the mid-century fascination with—or exploitation of—Asian archetypes, with art by Denis McLoughlin, Robert Maguire (identically on Ne-San and The Transistor Girls), J. Oval, aka Ben Ostrick, and more. Four or five of these came from Flickr, so thanks to the original uploaders on those.
Mid-century fiction’s love affair with the East produced scores of virtuoso bookcovers.
Ronald Kirkbride, Karl Eskelund, Griff, Mark Corrigan, Sidney Weintraub, Max Dauthendey, Jerome Denver, Paul Daniels, Stuart Griffin, Jean Hougron, Charles Pettit, Dan Cushman, Stephen Becker, William Groninger, Barye Phillips, Ben Ostrick, Vivian Connell, J. Oval, Robert Maguire, Jack Reynolds, Robert R. Roripaugh, Marcel Letang, J. E. MacDonnell, James Workman, Simon Harvester, Noel Langley, Brian Cooper, cover art, cover collection, literature