Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Paperback 993: The Farm / Louis Bromfield (Signet D1260)

Paperback 993: Signet D1260 (1st ptg, 1955)

Title: The Farm
Author: Louis Bromfield
Cover artist: James Avati

Condition: 8/10
Estimated value: $15-20

SigD1260
Best things about this cover:
  • Hay rides have always sounded like hell to me, but this doesn't look so bad.
  • This is probably the single hottest Avati cover of all time. Note that 99% of all Avati covers involve people standing motionless and looking sad.
  • It really is exquisite as a piece of figurative art—those heads, arms, calves, feet!—and all the peripheral details are rendered with keen-eyed precision as well.

SigD1260bc
Best things about this back cover:
  • Jeez, Omaha World-Herald. Dial it back a notch.
  • I'm here for the hot rural action, not "Indian massacres." Come on, Bromfield!
  • He looks like Mickey Spillane's yokel cousin.

Page 123~

And for days Johnny was haunted by a vision of Greataunt (sic) Jane clad in a pink union suit with a corset cover of passementerie.

When you don't have internet porn, you make do.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

3 comments:

Thalia said...

Writer known for his love of soil. He's in great company with Wendall Berry.

Front Cover Art is sublime!

DemetriosX said...

It's gorgeous art, but the more I look at it, the more I get distracted by the feeling that the horse pulling the wagon is off-center, and it bugs the heck out of me.

Patrick Murtha said...

That is a wonderful painting. But then I'm a huge Avati fan.