Name: POWERS, Richard Michael Aged: 75
Born: February 24, 1921 Where: Chicago, Illinois
Died: March 9, 1996 Where: Madrid, SPAIN
Interred: St. Mary's Cemetery, Ridgefield, CT
Married 1: Evelyn ??? When: ??? (d 1966)
Married 2: Tina Paul When: ??? (div)
Awarded: _ _ _

Spent his early, pre-war years in Illinois, trying to learn about art. Powers attended the Art Institute of Chicago and The University of Illinois's School of Fine Art. When WW2 came along, Richard joined the Army. But he remained state-side, being assigned to Astoria, NY as an artist.

Powers became a major surrealistic artist who was involved in over 1,000 cover drawings for science fiction paperbacks, working notably for Ballantine, Dell, Signet, and Avon among others. Powers drew covers for Bester's The Stars, My Destination; Clarke's Childhood's End and Reach For Tomorrow; Blish's A Case of Conscience, Sturgeon's More Than Human; and Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan. The style of those covers was unique, odd, and hard. As Powers aged, his work became splashy, yet detailed, over-welming the eye with color as in Ed Bryant's Particle Theory or in the painting entitled "Creator." Powers is now considered one of the main artistic influences in publishing in the last half of the twentieth century.

That Powers was not awarded a Hugo speaks volumes about: (1) the artistic worth of that award, and, (2) the lack of credit given to pb cover artists...many issues containing no credit or artist's signature.

Thumbnail from a much larger, color photo by Roy Hoopes.

BIOGRAPHY On-Line: Try Clicking Here or Here.

ARTWORK: Sean Rohde has an excellent page of Powers pb covers listed by book author here and John Barrick's page of 70 super-excellent renditions of Powers's SF covers without print is currently between servers. (I'll link to it as soon as it re-appears.)

OBITUARY:

George C. Willick, 514 East Street, Madison, IN 47250