Roy Ellsworth, who created cover art for the 1977 edition of Mr. Sammler’s Planet, and the 1983 release of Henderson the Rain King, was also the artist for the 1985 publication of Seize the Day – all authored by Saul Bellow; all published by Penguin Books.
His cover for the latter novel – shown in this post – is strikingly different from the simple, somewhat impressionistic illustration featured on the cover of the novel’s 1958 Fawcett Crest edition, which I first posted in April of 2019. In the latter, the emphasis is on an un-named New York City street, with the protagonist and his father, Tommy Wilhelm and “Dr. Adler”, appearing as diminutive, nondescript figures.
For the book’s 1985 edition, Ellsworth rendering of father and son shows them as distinct individuals, with a notable resemblance. Curiously, as he did for Henderson the Rain King, his cover coveys a mood of lightheartedness and whimsy, more than a little at variance (!) with the novel’s utter seriousness.
References
The Day Seized, at…