Illustrator Harry R. Bennett – Literary Art and Illustration

While the great majority of my posts displaying science fiction art present illustrations created for stories and novels written by authors of science fiction, the art for Herman Wouk’s The “Lomokome” Papers is somewhat different, given he nature of Wouk’s literary oeuvre. This could be categorized as historical fiction, with a focus upon aspects of the American experience of the mid-twentieth century as viewed through the lens of United States Navy during the Second World War, or the Second World War “in general”, and, the history of the Jewish people in both the United States and Israel as perceived in and personified through the lives of individual men and women, and, their families.

So, when – in a used bookstore (yes, a few still exist!) – I chanced upon this copy of The “Lomokome” Papers, it rang a literary bell of a highly different tone. I’d long nominally known “of” the title, but had not yet read the book.

While one might at first think the story to be purely a tale of science fiction representative of the mid-twentieth century’s “Golden Age”, the 1949 novel instead uses the plot device of American astronauts’ lunar voyage to confront themes much larger: the intersection between technology, war, and politics, and morality. In the words of Monstrodwhale at GoodReads – where ratings of the novel by 58 readers are hugely varied – the novel is a, “Swiftian satire about the Cold War set on the moon. Written not long after WWII, it provides a fairly interesting take on the real differences between Democracy and Communism as well as a strange reading of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Ultimately, it’s clever.”

In any event, the novel does mark Wouk’s only foray into science fiction.

In terms of art, this 1968 Pocket Books edition marked an effort by the publisher to – perhaps? – lend the novel a “highbrow” air through the inclusion of numerous full-page black and white interior illustrations, of which two are displayed below. (I didn’t want to risk breaking the binding by scanning all the other illustrations within the book!)

The frontspiece image of the astronaut depicted as floating against the background of a lunar inhabitant’s starry cloak in the “upper” black and white illustration was certainly inspired by James A. McDivitt’s famous photo of Edward H. White during the latter’s spacewalk three years prior to this edition’s publication: during Gemini 4, on June 3, 1965. Subsequently, McDivitt’s superb photograph (it’s a really nice image aside from its historical significance) was directly incorporated into, was adapted for, or inspired much in the way of the iconography of space exploration, science, and science fiction, at least through the 1970s.

Otherwise, Harry R. Bennett’s front cover has – surprise, surprise – a sort of “hippie” feel. Y’know, big red hair and all.

Well, this was 1968..!

____________________