Monday, July 20, 2015

Book jacket designer Arthur Hawkins, Jr.

Arthur Hawkins, Jr. was a prolific book cover designer in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. He designed the iconic jacket of The Postman Always Rings Twice (Knopf, 1934), which appears on the Armed Services Edition paperback below.

Hawkins was a member of the Book Jacket Designers Guild, which was formed in 1947 in reaction to the crass and sexual pulp covers that had proliferated in that time. The guild put on exhibitions of the best dustjackets and paperback covers as a way to promote quality design that supported fine literature.
1945 Armed Services Edition of The Postman Always Rings Twice. From my collection.

Hawkins specialized in jackets, but he also worked on paperback covers: Lend-Lease: Weapon for Victory (Pocket Books, 1944), Malice in Wonderland (Penguin, 1946), The Purple Onion Mystery (Penguin, 1947).

Steven Heller wrote a piece about Hawkins’ book cover work on the Print website.

There is more info about Hawkins and the Book Jacket Guild in The Book of Paperbacks by Piet Schreuders.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Service Club Library in Camp Wheeler, Georgia during WWII

Librarian Miss Hatcher and Richard Bowers Oliver in the Service Club Library, Camp Wheeler, GA, 1941.

I recently bought this photo on eBay. Here's some info from the seller:

From a series of photos taken by Army Private First Class Richard Bowers Oliver while stationed at Camp Wheeler, near Macon, Georgia. From the breadth of the subject matter, it appears that Oliver was an official camp photographer in the Public Relations Office, and the photos he took provide rare glimpses into the everyday life of an American Soldier during World War II. Camp Wheeler was used as an infantry replacement center from 19401945. At the height of the training effort, the camp contained 17,000 trainees and 3,000 officer personnel. Among units staged there was the 7th Infantry Division.

Richard Bowers Oliver was a news photographer, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, May 19, 1913. He moved to Auburn Maine and resided at 25 Hampshire Street. He worked for the Lewiston Journal Newspaper but appears to have done a lot of freelance work as a news photographer.

You can read more about the WWII Army Special Services Librarians in my earlier post.