Galaxy Science Fiction – January, 1955 (Featuring “The Tunnel Under the World,”, by Frederik Pohl) [Edmund A. Emshwiller)]

Unlike the cover art of Astounding Science Fiction, and most (but certainly not all!) of the cover art featured by its leading competitors, among them The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, if – Worlds of Science Fiction, and Amazing Science Fiction Stories, the cover illustrations of Galaxy Science Fiction, particularly from about 1955 through the early 1960s, was characterized by a sense of humor and whimsy, in the form of (obviously wordless!) visual social commentary.

Of this, the illustration below, by “Emsh” (Edmund A. Emshwiller) – entitled “Milady’s Boudoir”, is an excellent example, needing little elaboration.  (-* Ahem.*-)  Like other humorous Galaxy covers, the cover art is a “stand alone” image, entirely unrelated to the magazine’s literary content. 

Seize the Day, by Saul Bellow (II) – 1958 (1985) [Roy Ellsworth]

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…

… Rotten Tomatoes

… Internet Movies Database

… Wikipedia