Literary Art and Illustration

I’ve not read this story, but the interior illustration for “When the Dream Dies (What of the Dreamer?)” (alternately and subsequently entitled as “When the Dream Dies”, and, “Rendezvous on a Lost World”) is a fine example of Virgil Finlay’s single-page work for digest size pulps. Though not as visually bold as his two-page work for such publications as Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories (among others!), his composition is similar to those works in having the same qualities of symbolism, myth, and, an idealized human form.

Here, the cover image is a scan of my own copy, while the illustration from page 57 was downloaded from the Pulp Magazine Archive because the extreme tightness of the magazine’s binding prevented effective and safe scanning. Then, it was digitally edited.

Illustration by Virgil W. Finlay for “When the Dream Dies (What of the Dreamer?)” by A. Bertram Chandler

(…page 57…)

But Wait … There’s More!

A. Bertram Chandler, at…

Coming hard on the pixels of my prior post – featuring John Schoenherr’s cover of the June, ’63 issue of Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, here’s his cover illustration that appeared four months later, in the October issue. This is for Walt and Leigh Richmond’s “Where I Wasn’t Going”, which appeared in two parts, the latter in the November issue. I’ve not read this one, but no problem: I can refer you to Rich Horton’s blog for a substantive discussion of the tale, which I understand was not too impressive. A perusal of the Internet Speculative Fiction Database reveals that the story has never been anthologized, though both parts seem to have been combined into the paperback Challenge the Hellmaker, who came out in 1976 and 2019.

Regardless, Schoenherr’s minimalist cover art, with the background-illuminated ring space station, is very effective.