I love the artwork of Harry Sheldon!

Harry Sheldon was a British artist, a painter who first gained recognition for several paintings that were based on his own experiences during World War II.  (His paintings can still be seen in many British war museums.)  After the war, Sheldon was a renowned portrait artist, a talent that he obviously put to good use while doing covers for Pan Books in the 1960s.  Even if he hadn’t been one of the few cover artists to always sign his work, Harry Sheldon’s work would have been instantly recognizable in the amount of work that he put into capturing every detail of the faces of the women who were featured in his covers.  Sometimes, Sheldon’s women are dangerous.  Sometimes, they are amused.  Sometimes, as in the cover at the top of this post, they’re bored.  But they’re also always painted with obvious care and each seems to have a personality of her very own.

Here’s just some of the work that Harry Sheldon did for Pan Books: