GALLERY OF FRANK R. PAUL's SCIENCE FICTION ARTWORK
artwork (c) Frank R. Paul estate
Cover Art by Frank R. Paul for a Dec. 1957 issue of Satellite Science Fiction.
The inside front cover text reads:
The Ultimate Space Station
This month's cover illustration is an artist's interpretation of what the ultimate Earth satellite will look like, done by a man who is generally regarded as "The Dean of Science Fiction Illustrators" - Frank R. Paul.
It is singularly appropriate that he should have selected this theme, since the first full-color painting of an Earth satellite in history - it appeared on the cover of the August, 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories - was also the work of Mr. Paul. That early painting was based on the history-making theories of Herman Oberth as interpreted by Captain Hermann Norrdung in his book, "The Problems of Space Flying." The present illustration is designed to coincide with the most advanced theories of today, projected by the power of Paul's remarkable imagination and creative ability into the far future.
Born in Vienna, in 1884, Frank R. Paul studied art in Vienna, Paris, and London and also completed courses as a mechanical and architectural draftsman.
Editors have claimed that the machines Paul drew were so carefully designed that they would actually function if built, and it is his own astonishing claim that of the thousands of spaceships he has drawn in his long career, he has never used the same design twice! Paul's drawings have appeared frequently in LIFE magazine, and he designed the Johnson & Johnson building in New Brunswick, N.J., which is generally regarded as a classic of modern industrial architecture.
But in calling attention to the cover illustration - and we're quite frankly more than proud of it - we mustn't forget this month's complete novel - The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance. We haven't much space left to tell you just how great a novel we think it is. But that doesn't matter too much, really, for a story as magnificently imaginative as this one maintains its hold ont eh reader on every unfolding page.
Leo Margulies
Publisher
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