I couldn’t find much biographical information on Owen Kampen.  He worked as an illustrator in the 50s and the 60s, painting covers for many paperback publishers.  Because cover artists were rarely credited, there are a lot of covers that Kampen is speculated to have done but, for this profile, I have tried to only include covers that are definitely known to have been painted by him.  Owen Kampen was born in Wisconsin and lived in both New York and Connecticut during the height of his career.  In his later years, he worked as an art instructor at Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin and, while there, he inspired several future artists.

Owen was also married, for 11 years, to Irene Kampen.  After a bitter divorce in 1954, Irene wrote several humorous novels about their marriage, their divorce, and Irene’s life afterward.  Her 1961 book, Life Without George (George being a stand-in for Owen), was so popular that it was later adapted into The Lucy Show, a sitcom starring Lucille Ball.

Here are a few samples of Owen Kampen’s work.