Or All The Seas With Oysters, by Avram Davidson – 1962 [Richard M. Powers]

Another intriguing cover by Richard Powers. 

Rather than creating an image with a single, central image, most of the cover is given over to blank space, upon which the title and author’s name are superimposed.  Only at the “bottom” of the cover (this is a nautically inspired title, after all!) appears a painting of various forms of sea-life, including a kind of mermaid, and a large-headed jellyfish.

And, floating above, a stylized, transparent submarine. 

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Not a yellow, but a green submarine. 

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The rear covers bears a photograph of Avram Davidson, by Emsh (Edward Emshwiller).

Contents

Or All the Seas With Oysters, Galaxy Science Fiction, May, 1958

Now Let Us Sleep, Venture Science Fiction, September, 1957

The Grantha Sighting, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April, 1958

Help! I am Dr. Morris Goldpepper, Galaxy Science Fiction, July, 1957

The Sixth Season, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June, 1960

Negra Sum, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November, 1957

My Boy Friend’s Name is Jello, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July, 1954

The Golem, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1955

Summerland, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July, 1957

King’s Evil, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1956

Great Is Diana, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August, 1958

I Do Not Hear You, Sir, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, 1958

Author, Author, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July, 1959

Dagon, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1959

The Montavarde Camera, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 1959

The Woman Who Thought She Could Read, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January, 1959

 

Tiger by The Tail and Other Science Fiction Stories, by Alan E. Nourse – 1964 [Richard M. Powers]

Richard Powers’ cover of the McFadden Press 1964 edition of Alan Nourse’s Tiger By the Tail typifies Powers’ unique, immediately identifiable, and highly creative approach to science fiction illustration. 

Though eminently capable of creative technically realistic (albeit imaginary!) depictions of space vehicles, as well as the human form and facial expressions, Powers instead presents viewers with a mixture of symbolic visual elements, fragments of landscapes, and  stylized color patterns, only one element of which is actually related to the book’s title:  Orange and black tiger stripes at the lower left, held by tiger-striped, vaguely humanoid and not-really-even-human figure on the right. 

For this edition of Tiger By the Tail, that’s all you’ll see of the “tiger”!  (If you read the original story, you’ll understand the symbolism of Powers’ art…) 

The other really science-fictiony elements on the cover are the silhouette of a figure at the lower right, and, a weirdly oval, semi-transparent spacecraft rising from a crater, in the center. 

Whether or not these elements “fit” the anthology’s stories is not really relevant. 

They set and fit a literary mood, and generate a sense of curiosity…

Contents

Tiger By The Tail, from Galaxy Science Fiction, November, 1951

Nightmare Brother, from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1953

PRoblem, from Galaxy Science Fiction, October, 1956

The Coffin Cure, from Galaxy Science Fiction, April, 1957

Brightside Crossing, from Galaxy Science Fiction, January, 1956

The Native Soil, from Fantastic Universe, July, 1957

Love Thy Vimp, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April, 1952

Letter of The Law, from If, January, 1954

Family Resemblance, from Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1953