Harry Bennett painted covers for Dell Books editions of five of Chester Himes’ novels featuring Harlem cops “Coffin” Ed Johnson and “Grave Digger” Jones. All were published in the mid-1960s. “In contrast to [Bennett’s] lushly rendered romance covers, or more conventional crime novel art,” observes the blog Pulp International, “these have an almost spontaneous quality. Publisher input usually has quite a bit to do with it, but we suspect Bennett was also influenced by Himes’ writing and the Harlem setting, and as a result produced this jazzy art for a jazzy novelist. Excellent stuff.”
1 comment:
Last time I taught Cotton Comes to Harlem, one of my students had this edition of the book--and I admired it so much from afar that I asked to look at it more closely. At the end of the semester, he offered it to me, but I was hesitant to take his book--regretting it now. These editions are great!
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