Saturday, July 6, 2019

C.S. Lewis on the Covers of 1940s American Magazines

It is well-known that C.S. Lewis appeared on the front cover of Time magazine in the 1940s.  The specific issue date was that of 8 September 1947, and the artist was Boris Artzybasheff.  See it at right.

Less-known is the fact that Lewis had appeared some three years earlier on the cover of The Saturday Review of Literature, accompanying a review (by Leonard Bacon) of the U.S. edition of Perelandra. The specific issue date was 8 April 1944, and the wood engraving for the cover was by Frances O'Brien Garfield. The artist was apparently given only a headshot of a rather weary-looking C.S. Lewis to use in making the cover. This headshot was apparently a publicity photo used by the U.S. publisher Macmillan, as it also appeared next to contemporary American reviews of some of Lewis's books.


Here's a close-up of the illustration itself, with the scan of Lewis's headshot below it for comparison.


2 comments:

  1. How do we see the text of the Saturday Review by Mr. Bacon?

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    Replies
    1. The easiest way would be to find a library that holds a run of The Saturday Review from that period.

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