"You CANNOT Be Serious!... Tennis Paperback Cover Art?"

Of course I'm serious!

I played tennis in the public parks for 15 years, and during that time I tried to read everything that was ever written about the game; encyclopedic histories, instructional books, player biographies, newspaper articles and magazine articles---in fact I subscribed to both Tennis and World Tennis, and I was a member of the United States Tennis Association. I also collected paperbacks that had either content associated with the game, or cover art. I was especially fond of mysteries and thrillers; they always had great covers.

Back in the Eighties, you see, I was just young enough to believe that reading about the sport I loved (and watching it religiously on TV) would help take my game to a higher level. You know, the ITF Satellite Circuit. Ha! Well, that didn't happen of course, but that's entirely on me, not the books. Even so, when I finally did retire from playing, I judged myself to be a fairly well versed, relatively solid 5.0 level player, and I'm more than pleased with that, all things considered.

A young lady named Brenda is talking to her friend Hugh while waiting for their tennis opponents to show up:

"That's the trouble with tennis," complained Brenda, shaking the watch beside her ear. "Whenever you've got time off to play, the other person never has, and-- vice versa. You know? So you never do play. Wouldn't it be wonderful, though, if Nick can invent that tennis robot he's been promising, the machine or dummy that will return your strokes so that you can play alone?"

So begins The Problem of the Wire Cage, a classic "locked room" murder mystery by John Dickson Carr. When Carr's novel was first published in 1939 there existed only a hand-crank version of the tennis ball launching machine, invented more than ten years earlier by Frenchman and seven time Grand Slam singles winner Rene LaCoste. It worked pretty well too but it required two persons to utilize it. The first electrically powered machines were built in the 1950s and then in 1968 a pneumatic tennis ball machine was created by 75-year-old Robert H. McClure. McClure used its commercial success to build Prince Global Sports LLC., a significant racquet equipment and clothing manufacturer. I never hit against McClure's machine but I did play with a Prince Thunderstick for several years and loved its power and control.

Bantam's 3rd edition of The Problem of the Wire Cage was issued in 1964 (top), but the cover artist was not credited. The court surface is made of red clay, surrounded by an obligatory wire cage and hence the reason for story's "locked room" puzzle. A body is found on the court but only one set of footprints can be seen entering the cage--the victims. He was strangled with a scarf which seems impossible given the circumstances. But what if purely for fun we changed the cause of death to blunt force trauma. Now the absence of secondary footprints makes sense, and Nick and his newly built tennis ball machine are about to be given a police escort downtown.

Paul Tankersley produced the cover art on the 1986 paperback from Zebra (bottom). Let's assume his tennis court, seen briefly through the window, is meant to be made of green clay.

This paperback edition of Follow Your Heart by Emilie Loring was published by Bantam in March, 1971.  Here's how the novel opens:

"Marry me, Jill. Please marry me."
   The girl in a white blouse and short tennis skirt dropped her racket on the lawn beside the long chair in which she had been resting after a strenuous game. the brilliant sun poured down on waves of shining auburn hair, on clear brown eyes and smiling tender lips in a vivid face deeply tanned.
   She turned her head, looking in surprise at the earnest young man in the chair under the big, gaily striped umbrella. Chester Bennett's pleasant face was anxious as he returned her look.
   "Mapleville is a nice village," he said persuasively. "You like it here, don't you?"
   "Yes, but--"
   "I could make you happy. I'd try very hard."
   A slim tanned hand made a quick pleading gesture. "Chester, you're like a very dear cousin I'm terribly found of. But..."

Jill is about to inherit millions so Chester's motivations are obvious to her, and captured perfectly by the great cover artist James Bama. Loring's novel is obvious too, but only because of the confining nature of the romance genre itself. Loring started writing at age 50 in 1914, and before her death at age 87 in 1951 she had published 30 novels, with sales exceeding a million copies. Her family then made a very smart move by hiring a ghost writer, Elinore Denniston, who utilized Loring's substantial unfinished material into 17 more published novels, including the one highlighted above.

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Tennis is barely factored into these two romances. So did Lou Feck, who was himself a good tennis player, illustrate these scenes out of a fondness for the game, or because of its then tremendous commercial appeal?

King's Castle by Leslie Ames (Red Rose Romance No. 115), was published by Bantam in October, 1971. Ames is actually William Edward Daniel Ross (W. E. D. Ross), a Canadian, and one of the most productive fiction writers of all time. Here's why: Ross didn't even start writing until he was 48, but before he passed away at the age of 83 in 1995 he had published more than 300 novels under a variety of pseudonyms and genres. 

Dreams in the Sun by Marsha Manning (Red Rose Romance No. 102), was published by Bantam in June, 1971. I couldn't find any biographical information about Manning online, but I did discover that her novel was first published in the UK by Ward Lock & Co in 1967, which probably makes her British by birth.

 

The odd title of David Knight's novel, Farquharson's Physique & What It Did to His Mind, which was published it in paperback by Fawcett Crest in 1973, probably confused more than one bookstore browser, but if they were adventurous enough to take the book home they'd discovered what it was really about, that being the White man's experience in Nigeria's civil war during the 1960s.  David James Knight (1926- 2001) was born in Toronto, Canada, and earned a degree in English Literature from Victoria College at the University of Toronto. He achieved his doctorate at Yale, then returned to teach English and Creative Writing at Victoria until his retirement three decades later. Farquharson's Physique was directly influenced by his lone exchange trip in 1965 to Ibadan, Nigeria, where he saw first hand the unfolding of a military coup. Supposedly, Knight wrote a series of science-fiction novels too, but I've found no evidence that they were ever published.

The cover art is fascinating because the artist, who was not credited but is probably either Stuart Kaufman or Gordon Johnson, likened Charlton Heston as his inspiration for Henry Farquharson. A good choice too because Henry's physical charisma is every bit as powerful as Heston's was. Interestingly enough, when Heston and his wife Lydia Clarke were living in Hell's Kitchen during the late 1940s they both worked briefly as artists models. I'm sure that Heston's rugged visage impressed the eye of every artist he posed for (Lydia's beauty the same!).

 
The Professional by Edwin Fadiman, Jr., is the story of the making of a male tennis champion, from the slums of his orphaned youth to the Bel Air mansion of his married adulthood. It's a helluva story too, fraught with tragedy and triumph, and one that speaks true to its time and the sport's new Open Era. It was published in paperback by Fawcett Crest in December, 1974, about a year after the hardback edition came out.  Edwin Fadiman, Jr. (1925- 1994) was often overshadowed by his uncle Clifton Fadiman (1904- 1999), a famous radio and television personality, intellectual, author and editor, who while editing for Simon & Schuster turned Robert Ripley's newspaper cartoon Believe it or Not! into a bestselling book series. But Edwin the nephew had a productive literary career in his own right, as a radio and television writer, editor, reviewer, and, touché, a novelist. In addition to his opus on tennis he wrote six really good novels: The Voice and the Light (1949), The Glass Play-Pen (1956), An Act of Violence (1957), The "21" Screen (1960), Who Will Watch the Watchers (1971) and The One-Eyed King (1972).

Although not signed, the cover art was most likely produced by realist painter Peter Caras (1941-). When Caras was starting his career he purposely met Norman Rockwell, ultimately becoming his friend and associate. He was also mentored by the late great James Bama, and it's easy to see Bama's influence in most of Caras's early paintings.

 
Four male friends meet at a private tennis court every Saturday morning to play doubles. On Friday night the wife of one of the men starts partying with the others at a community pool while her husband is conspicuously absent. Her body is found the next day wrapped in plastic. But was she actually murdered? And by whom? After all, the tennis match went on as per usual.

Saturday Games was written by Brown Meggs and published by Fawcett Crest in January of 1976. It was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1975, but lost out to Gregory McDonald's Fletch.  Meggs (1931-1997) wrote his debut in between gigs as an EMI/Capitol Records executive, where he was instrumental in signing The Beatles to their first American recording contract in 1963. During his self-imposed hiatus from the music business he also wrote three other novels, each one being an ace, just like his first one. They are The Matter of Paradise (1975), Aria (1978), and The War Train (1981).

Canadian born Tom (Thomas John) Miller (1913- 2004) produced the cover art for Saturday Games. Miller chose not draw anything tennis related into his scene, but he will always get a favorable line call from me because he happens to be one of the finest realist painters of the 20th century. When Miller started illustrating paperback covers in the late 1950s he kept his pictures conventional to comply with what his art directors needed, i.e., dames, dudes, doctors and nurses in basic situational poses, plus he was still in the throes of learning. But by the time the 1970s rolled in Miller had developed his painting style so acutely that the words realism and gorgeous were one and the same.

Tennis doesn't really factor into Lee Head's mystery novel The Terrarium (Fawcett Crest, 1976), even if the cover art suggests otherwise. The cover was not credited either but it looks like it is the work of Charles Gehm, although without seeing at least some vestige of a signature it's hard to be totally sure. But I do see that our handsome tennis player is holding a Yonex racquet, and I remember playing with one of those babies back in the day.

Lee Head was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. She wrote just one other mystery besides The Terrarium, titled Crystal Clear Case, and they both feature her unorthodox sleuth, Lexey Jane Pelazoni, a sixty-eight-year-old widow with a nose for trouble. Head also wrote the Golden Spur Award winning historical novel Horizon, which chronicles the exploits of an Oklahoma ranch family. Head died in 1983 from cancer while living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Sadly, she was only 52 years old.

'The Terrarium: This world-famous beauty spa certainly didn't appear ominous. It seemed to be exactly the kind of elegant hideaway spoiled, super-rich women demanded.  But to Lexey Jane Pelozoni, a bright, crafty and very wealthy widow with an eye for detail and a nose for trouble, the celebrated health resort was merely a coverup for a multitude of dark sins.  Something funny was going on here. Something very evil. Lexey Jane was certain the place was just a front for organized crime. She was even more certain when she realized that somebody had put a contract out on her...'

I been meaning to read The Tennis Murders by Timothy Welch for quite some time. Popular Library published it in June, 1976, but I can't tell if their cover image is an actual illustration or a photograph (note the realistic looking blood on the handle).

The front-page blurb reads like this: 

THE NAME OF THE GAME WAS SUDDEN DEATH

The big time tennis tour had turned into a terror trip. One of the most luscious lady lobbers was mangled in the locker room, another met an even more gruesome end, and players suddenly found they needed more than the guts in the racquets to keep from quitting the courts.

That's when Dion Quince made the scene, using his tennis talents to gain entry into a world of sunlit sport and shadowy evil-- and his hard body and iron nerve to keep his end up in a game where love meant zero, lust scored high, players swung every way, and an unknown killer kept hitting winner after winner...

Yup--and now you know why I've been meaning to read this book.

I came across this tennis cartoon in Tom K. Ryan's collection Hang in There, Tumbleweeds!. Fawcett Gold Medal published it in paperback in 1976.  Ryan's cartoon illustrations are marvelous things all by themselves, but Ryan also possessed a brilliantly droll sense of humor that kept Tumbleweeds, his comic strip parody of the Old West (or its myth, anyway), blowing around in newspaper syndication for more than four decades, from 1965 to 2007. When I was a teenager I used to sketch his zany cast of characters for fun.

Helen Rosenbaum's Tennis Vacations is packed full of information about tennis related resorts, cruises, camps, academies, USTA memberships, rankings, regulations, clothing, physical conditioning and even magazines. It's also crammed with an abundance of black & white photos.

I get the impression that Rosenbaum would have liked for her book to become an updated annual. Popular Library published it as a paperback original in May, 1977, but they never reprinted it or any revised editions, so today it is a rather rare and perhaps even valuable in the eyes of some tennis fans. It's definitely an item from the 'old time-capsule'.

Is World Class (Popular, 1977) the best novel ever written about life on the tennis circuit? Well--considering that every paperback copy that I've come across has been read to near ruin (like mine here), I'm inclined to believe that, yes, maybe it is. The authors, Jane and Burt Boyar, certainly did their homework in preparation to writing their tome; two years traveling on the pro circuit taking notes and interviewing a who's who of the sport's best players, folks such as Butch Buchholz, Marilyn Bucholz, Cliff Drysdale, Roy Emerson, Pancho Gonzales, Rod Laver, Mary Laver, John Newcombe, Dennis Ralston, Tony Roche, Ken Rosewall, Pancho Segura, Fred Stolle, and Roger Taylor. They also interviewed the players wives and coaches--and attended a lot of lavish parties too!  (Note: the cover image appears to be a photograph and not a painted illustration).

The Tennis Hustler (1978) is one of tennis's 'Holy Grails'. But not because it's one of the best novels ever written about the sport (hmm... don't think so), or because J. R. Pici might be the pseudonym of a famous writer (hmm... not likely), but strictly because it was the product of Major Books, a low-budget publisher who ran extremely low print runs. So finding a copy can be an impossible task, and I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled across this one.

 

The cover art for The Tennis Hustler was painted by Gerald Powell, whose career as a paperback and magazine illustrator spanned four decades. One of his biggest clients was probably Major, and I'm pretty sure he produced more than 100 covers for them.

"The Queen and the winner of your final will be executed unless a suitable ransom is paid before your match ends. If anyone attempts to leave the royal box or the center court before the match ends, the executions will be carried out immediately, but will include both of you, not just one. Should any attempt be made to remove the Queen from the royal box, or provide her with cover in it, or get either of you off the court, many innocent spectators will die. Negotiations are in progress, have a good game." 

Russell Braddon's rather excellent novel, The Finalists, is really two stories in one. The first story, and the book's better half in my opinion (though some have called it saccharine), concerns two extremely talented international tennis stars who become best buddies. The second story begins at the halfway point and is your typical 'assassin-in-the-stadium' plot (as reflected by the above quote), which while not without its suspense, is really just another way of cementing the bromance between our two stars. And when it's all said and done it's probably the bromance that will be remembered the most.

Bantam published this novel in 1978, but they did not credit their stepback illustrator. So I have narrowed the choices down to five artists:  Bob Heindel, Alan E. Cober, Ken Dallison, Barron Storey and Jack Unruh. My money's on Bob Heindel.

Breakpoint was published in paperback by Ballantine in 1979. The best way to describe William Brinkley's novel is to actually quote Kirkus Reviews, whose assessment I completely agree with: 

"With an eye for catchy details and a tone that drifts blithely from cynical to-sentimental to downright silly, Brinkley keeps things moving right along without leaning too heavily on the non-plot. Result? A cheerfully vulgar, agreeably lousy, very professional chunk of good-natured easy-reading."

William Brinkley (1917- 1993) was an American writer and journalist, best known for his novel's Don't Go Near the Water (1956) and The Last Ship (1988)--the former being made into an MGM feature film and the latter into a TNT television series. He also wrote five other novels, mostly comedic in tone, and a rather serious article for the Washington Post about an exorcism that later became the basis of William Peter Blatty's bestselling novel The Exorcist (1971).

Birney Lettick (1919-1986) produced the cover art on Breakpoint. Lettick was a commercial artist whose portrait work and illustrations appeared regularly in and on magazines such as Time, Collier's, National Lampoon, Newsweek, and National Geographic. In addition to creating paperback covers he also produced movie posters for some of Hollywood's biggest films.

Leisure published Double Fault in paperback in 1979. The cover artist is unknown.  I believe Double Fault was written by this specific Dan Brennan, a Minneapolis based writer with 25 known novels to his credit, who was born in 1917 and died in 2002. Brennan was also a highly decorated WWII tail gunner (RCAF and USAF), political speech and radio spot writer (Hubert Humphrey's 1948 campaign), news reporter, outdoor sports writer, film critic, hunter, husband, father of five kids, and "crazy Irish boozer" (not my quote). He also liked playing tennis, which is my only real reason for believing this novel is his, not having read any of his other books for comparison. Of note though is an interesting dedication inside the book:  

"With gratitude to the tennis friends of our family, who helped make it possible for our children to win more than 500 tennis trophies and three college scholarships: Al Teeter, Norman MacDonald, Frank Voigt, Bob DeHaven, Dick Allen, Bill Kuross, Betty and Warren Swanson, Connie Custodio."

Missing from the list is the name Jim Klobuchar, a retired Star Tribune Columnist and friend of Brennan's and one of his frequent tennis partners. So really, I may be way off base here in believing that this Dan Brennan wrote Double Fault when in fact it could be some other Dan Brennan.

'ADVANTAGE : EVANS
It was a long way from tennis pro at a small Midwestern country club to the big time, and Jack Evans was a young man in a hurry. His success on the tennis court was equaled by his prowess with women, but for Jack sex was just a sideline. He knew that, with the proper breaks, he could be US Open Champion, and he wasn't going to let his love life interfere with his career.  If there was a short route to the top, he'd take it, even if he had to destroy the girl he loved in the process!'

Sudden Death was written by Peter Brennan (no relation to Dan), and it's a novel I've also been meaning to read. This paperback edition was published by Jove in 1979, but the cover artist was not credited and I'm still trying to pin down who exactly that person is. Brennan is an American television producer, writer and journalist, who's noted for creating Judge Judy and several other companion television shows. He also wrote the horror novel Razorback, which was made into a motion picture using his screenplay in 1984.

'THEY TURNED A TENNIS COURT INTO A KILLING GROUND.
THE GAME: A "sudden death" tennis grudge match...
THE STAKES: One million dollars, winner-take-all...
THE PLAYERS:
Alex Wrangler: All his life he'd used tennis the way he used women--fiercely and artfully. Now the aging champ was trying for a dazzling comeback. But first he had to face the new contender--and a new kind of love.
Fletcher Sampson: The Australian kid with a golden style. By 26, he'd ripened from an eager-eyed teenage athlete to a rock-hard pro, plying the dirty ways of Alex Wrangler--backhanded sex and smashing violence--even better than the big man himself.'

The stylish painter Richard Bober produced the tennis themed cover art for Alfred Hitchcock's Games Killers Play (top), but I don't recall reading anything about tennis in any of the fourteen crime stories collected within. I'm sure Bober was just having fun with the title, and especially with the tagline on the back:

"WHEN YOU FORFEIT THE MATCH IN THE GAMES HITCHCOCK PLAYS... IT'S FOREVER."

This Dell printing, the seventh overall, was published in March, 1980.  Here are the contents:

The China Cottage by August Derleth
Killed in Kindness by Nedra Tyre
You Can't Be Too Careful by James Holding
Murder Delayed by Henry Slesar
A Pattern of Guilt by Helen Nielsen
Weighty Problem by Duane Decker
Willie Betts, Banker by Mike Brett
Bus to Chattanooga by Jonathan Craig
The Feel of a Trigger by Donald Westlake
Captive Audience by Jack Ritchie
Room to Let by Hal Ellson
Double Trouble by Robert Edmond Alter
Heist in Pianissimo by Talmage Powell
Wish You Were Here by Richard Hardwick

In December of 1980 Dell published Murder Racquet in paperback, yet another of Alfred Hitchcock's crime anthologies. William Teason produced the cover art, one of his clever, patented still life scenes that he perfected while doing Agatha Christie covers. Here are its contents:

The Sawbuck Machine by Frank Sisk.
Contraband by James Holding
For Every Evil by Douglas Farr
You Can't Win 'Em (at) All by Ed Lacy
Murder in Mind by C. B. Gilford
Charley's Charm by Alice-Mary Schnirring
Murder Door to Door by Robert Colby
Ransom Demand by Jeffrey M. Wallman
I'll Race You by Fletcher Flora
"I Am Not a Thief, Mr. Kester" by Gilbert Ralston
Mousetrap by Edwin P. Hicks
Mildly Murderous by Elijah Ellis
An Element of Risk by Richard Deming
A Neighborly Observation by Richard Hardwick

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Roberta Leigh was the pseudonym, and assumed name, of Englishwoman Rita Lewin Shulman (1926- 2014). It was one of four names that she used while writing more than 160 novels, most of which were romances. She was also a painter, and an accomplished British television writer, producer and composer. Her novel Love Match was first published in 1980 (not shown) and then reprinted twice by Worldwide. The Worldwide copy at the top is from November, 1982, and while the cover art is not signed or credited, I believe it was produced by Charles Geer, an accomplished illustrator known for his distinctively styled gothic romance covers. The copy underneath is from June, 1983, and its cover art was produced by Victor Gadino, a prolific realist painter who began his career in the mid-1970s. Why Worldwide would shell out money to two different illustrators on the same title within the space of only a year is something that only those involved can answer. 

Who Did It, Jenny Lake? was published in paperback by Putnam Pacer in 1984.  Kirkus Reviews said that its author, Jean Davies Okimoto, was "capable of better things", in regards to this mystery aimed at teens. And yes, Okimoto is capable of better things, there's no question about that, but that's still no justification for them trying to diminish this brisk little adventure, which is the perfect escape vehicle for your bored teenager, or wide-reaching adult. That being said, and after having read it, I now find myself mostly enamored with Richard "Dick" A. Williams excellent cover art. Williams is renowned for being one of the best Mad Magazine cover artists during the 1980s, and for, among other things, a marvelous run of Encyclopedia Brown covers for Bantam Skylark. He deserves a post just on those EB covers alone (which I hope to do some day).

'Sixteen-year-old Jenny Lake has been vacationing in exotic settings for as long as she can remember, thanks to her wealthy guardian aunt. Traveling as usual with her best friend Feddy, she is looking forward to relaxing in Hawaii.  But their dream vacation becomes a nightmare when Aunt Olivia's friend dies mysteriously on the island. Jenny suspects foul play, and she and Freddie are determined to get to the bottom of things. Soon they're in the middle of a murder--and in the middle of a holiday that's more than just fun in the sun!'

True Love is a sometimes funny, sometimes brilliant novel about Watkins, a warm, sensitive, twice divorced California lawyer who is in love with Bethany, a beautiful, athletic woman who loves playing tennis even more than she loves being with Watkins, which leads her to place a want ad in the local paper to help him find a replacement girlfriend. The book's author, warm, sensitive, 94 year-old twice divorced San Francisco resident Herbert Gold, has been writing insightful novels since 1951, when he was a part of the Paris Literary Scene and New York Beat Scene.  Joel Iskowitz produced the cover art on this Grove Press paperback edition, which was published in 1986.

Doing the research on Tom "Rider" McDowell (1960- ) was almost more interesting than reading his potboiler about tennis, but not quite. Wimbledon, published in paperback by PaperJacks of Canada in July, 1987, is actually one of the better, if not one of the best novels ever written about the game of tennis. It's loaded with suspense, drama, and copious amounts of tennis--or do I have that all wrong and it's actually copious amounts of sex! Oh well--the stepback illustration is definitely apropos to the story although as per usual an artist was not credited.

'The top of the world. That's what Wimbledon is for tennis pros and their fanatical followers. It draws the rich, the beautiful, the famous, the thrill-seekers, and high-rollers from the world over--and the smart money has picked McLaren to win it. James McLaren--the world's number one player, on and off the field.  But USSR's Aysop Chekow thinks otherwise, and so does a Russian conglomerate who will stop at nothing to assure the victory that will launch them into the multi-million dollar sporting goods market--including blackmail, drugs, sexual torture, and murder. They have unleashed Joseph, an ex-KGB operative programmed with one ultimate objective: Kill McLaren.  Now, while the world's eyes watch the seating bodies, and the heated action on the court, a cold, dark plot unfolds. It will come down to this final confrontation in the brutal tension of a great contest, in the last agonizing moments of the first life or death match ever held at ... Wimbledon.'

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The most gratifying shot I ever made in a tennis match was one that I learned from the repertoire of Ilie Nastase: a backhand volley with a wrist-snapped motion that propelled the ball sharply cross court for a clean winner. It felt good and looked good. Nastase was one of the game's best shot-makers during his time as a professional and he was even ranked number 1 in the world for ten months (August 1973 to June 1974). However, his shot-making ability is about the only positive thing that I can say about him these days, well that and perhaps his skill at writing novels, which is surprisingly deft, and nearly as deft as that wrist-snap volley of his used to be. You could do far worse than to read his thrillers Break Point and The Net.

St. Martin's published Break Point in paperback in 1987 (top). A cover artist was not credited, but did you notice the pistol in the woman's grip!  The Net was published in 1988 (middle & lower), also by St. Martin's (photo cover, also not credited).

No collection of tennis novels would be complete without something from Jack M. Bickham (1930- 1997), a long time professor at the University of Oklahoma who wrote six of the best tennis thrillers that have ever been written. He also published 69 other books, including the novels The Apple Dumpling Gang and Baker's Hawk, both of which were filmed by Hollywood.  Double Fault by Jack M. Bickham was published by Tor in August, 1994. The cover art was produced by Tim O'Brien.

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WELL, THAT'S about it for my humble collection of tennis paperbacks.

Oh--but wait... what's this? Seems like I've found a few bonus covers hiding in an image file.

So let's crack open a new can of balls and keep playing!
 

This cover for the August 8, 1954 issue of The American Weekly was produced by Arthur Saron Sarnoff (1912- 2000). He was a prolific illustrator of American culture for magazines and advertising. Sarnoff's most famous illustration is perhaps the one that has dogs playing billiards, titled "Jack the Ripper."  This issue contains an article about tennis champion Maureen Connolly, or "Little Mo", as she was affectionately nicknamed. Connolly won eleven Grands Slams in less than four years (nine in singles and two in doubles) before she was forced to retire at age 19 after an unfortunate riding accident. She was one of the game's greatest players, a dynamo with a racquet, and Hollywood even made a movie about her life.

Death on the Center Court by George Goodchild was first published in the US by Green Circle in 1936 (seen above), and in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton in 1937. But finding a copy to buy of either edition is tough, only three are currently listed online, and borrowing is even tougher because there are no lending libraries in the US that own. But there is a third option: Fly to England where you can reserve a copy to read "in house" at the Kenneth Ritchie Wimbledon Library, which is part of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum. And at the same time you will have one heckuva vacation.

George Goodchild (1885-1969) was a prolific British writer about whom very little is known. It is known however that he published 135 novels, some under the pseudonyms Jesse Templeton, Wallace Q. Reid, and Alan Dare, but most were published under his own name. He also published 61 collections of short stories. The jacket art on Green Circle edition was produced by Carl Cobbledick. He was extremely prolific too, but like Goodchild very little if anything is known about his personal life.

'The championship within his grasp, Wynbolt, the sensational Australian tennis star, drops dea on the center court at Wimbledon. And Inspector McClean is watching the match from one of the boxes--right on the spot to leap into one his whirlwind investigations that spares neither the secrets of private life nor the delicate feelings of his friend's only daughter.   McClean turns up a heap of dirt about the Australian thunderbolt and his lady admirers. But the murder itself, which appeared to be a simple heart failure, begins to be solved only when the Inspector settles down in a quiet county cottage to observe the strange drama in a nearby house, which has a mystery of its own...

Leo Manso produced the cover art on the very first hardback edition of Carr's The Problem of the Wire Cage (top & middle). It was published by Harpers in 1939. Manso's footprints are much more defined than on that later published Bantam seen at the beginning. The 1940 British edition from Hamish Hamilton also emphasizes the footprints (bottom). If you're a Carr fan which edition would you prefer, or maybe you'd want to own them both, like me!  (Note: the full dust jackets here are facsimiles that can be purchased for twenty-five dollars each plus s/h (books not included) from Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC.

Bantam's very first paperback edition of The Problem of the Wire Cage was published in 1948. Gilbert Fullington produced the cover art. Fullington certainly emphazied the "wire cage," but without the woman's white outfit you wouldn't know this is a tennis related mystery. Pan's paperback edition was published one year later but their uncredited cover art stayed with both the red clay and the footprints.

A bloody body lying on a tennis court would imply that this murder mystery has more to do with tennis than just mere coincidence, but then again, perhaps not. Learning what really gives here is not easy because Here Lies Blood is a really tough book to obtain; copies for sale are exceedingly scarce and libraries are stingy to loan, and thus far only the NY Times has reviewed it but as we all know they are off-limits to non-subscribers. The jacket artist is also not known. What I do know about the author, M. M. Mannon, is this: The name is a pseudonym for two sisters, Martha and Mary Ellen Mannon (Mary may have been known to some as Lucy). Martha, apparently, was one of the first women admitted to Stanford University's School of Medicine but had to forestall her studies because because she contracted tuberculosis. During her long recovery she and Mary co-wrote this mystery together, and eventually two more: Murder on the Program 1944), and The Corpse in the Elevator (1956). Martha lived in California all her life and was married to Everett Arthur "Joe" Coe, a career Foreign Service officer with stints in post-WWII Poland and Haiti.

Going Steady by Anne Emery is a typical teen relationship novel aimed at girls. It was first published in paperback by Scholastic Books in 1961, with cover art and interior illustrations by Bud Parke (top),  and then reprinted many times.  Stan Hunter produced the cover art on the 1967 reprint (bottom).

Set Point, A Win Hadley Sport Story by Mark Porter, is a typical teen sports novel aimed at boys. It was published first in hardback by Simon & Schuster in 1960 (top), in then in paperback by Tempo in 1966 (bottom). The jacket art on the hardback edition is not credited, but the paperback cover art was produced by John McDermott, who generally signed his paintings with the initials "MCD."  McDermott (1919-1977) was a steady magazine illustrator in addition to producing scores of cover art for paperbacks, his most famous being perhaps Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers (Dell, 1955).

TEMPO:  "All right," Dan said coldly. "If it makes you feel any better to see me accept the second-place cup, okay. but I don't settle for second place, Hadley; no Slade ever does. I'll see you again in the State Juniors; then it'll be different."   Win Hadley knew that Dan's threat was no empty boast, and he was determined to give his arch-rival some stiff competition for the championship. But he didn't foresee all the excitement that summer would bring--and not tennis thrills alone. There was also the day two desperate killers held Win and his friends prisoner on their own boat...'

 

 
U.S. born artist and illustrator Tom Adams is famous for producing dozens of distinctive Agatha Christie covers, on both sides of the Atlantic, including this simple but very effective one for Cat Among the Pigeons, published by Fontana (UK) in 1971.

'It was that intelligent schoolgirl, Julia Upjohn, who finally went to consult Hercule Poirot. "It's very urgent," she said. "There's been some murders and a robbery and things like that..."  Meadowbank, after all, was one of the most exclusive girls' schools in England. Unthinkable that there should be a murder there. But an extraordinary trail of violence, starting in the Middle East and involving jewels, intrigue and secret agents, did in fact reach a deadly climax inside the school. Worse, it seemed that the culprit must actually be one of the staff or pupils... There was a cat among the pigeons!'

Here's another Tom Adams cover for Agatha Christie's Murder at the Vicarage. It was published in paperback by Fontana in 1981.

'It was really very awkward... after all, as the local vicar I have many obligations to fulfill and my time is precious...  But there was no doubt about it. The Colonel was dead. There, as large as life--or should I say death--lying sprawled across a desk in a horridly unnatural position. I pulled myself together and went over to him. The cold hand that I raised fell back, lifeless.  You see, the real trouble was that only a few hours earlier I'd said:  "Anyone who murdered Colonel Prothero would be doing the world at large a service."  And someone had--in my study!

Random House published the first edition of Brown Meggs's Saturday Games in 1974 (top). Their cover photographer and designer are unknown to me but their image of a nude body against a tennis racquet certainly seemed to make sense in regards to the story.  On the other hand (no pun intended), Fontana's 1976 paperback edition (seen at bottom, no pun intended) would appear to be a different kind of toss altogether--a "butt-ball" toss.

Choke, a murder mystery by Stuart Woods, was published in hardback by Harper Collins in 1995. The jacket art was produced by Kirk Reinert, who is generally known for creating superb science fiction & fantasy cover art. So now I'm wondering what else Reinert did that was outside of his normal SFF box.

'Chuck Chandler arrives in Key West, as many people do, at the end of his rope. He has, in turn, blown a career as a top tour tennis professional and a series of teaching jobs at plush clubs, usually because he has been unable to keep his hands of his female students. At Key West's Olde Island Racquet Club, he yields to temptation once again, this time for the beautiful Clare Carras, who is married to an enigmatic older man with no apparent past and who turns out to be a great deal more than the tennis pro can handle.  Suddenly, the easygoing Chuck is in over his head, suspected of murder and on the verge of losing not only his modest career and all of his possessions but his freedom as well.   Enter Tommy Sculley, a former New York Police Department homicide detective, augmenting his pension with a job on the Key West force, and his neophyte partner, Daryl Haynes, who may be smarter than he looks. The two detectives find themselves barely afloat in a shark-infested investigation that stretches from the Florida Keys to Los Angeles and back, involving no only the treacherous Clare but a furious West Coast mob boss who is determined to get back something that belongs to him and doesn't care who he has to kill to do it.'

Arthur Ashe and Tom Okker are the only top ranked professionals that I ever saw play live. It was at an exhibition in Denver at the now razed McNichols Sports Arena. I sat in the 4th row behind the baseline, which in my opinion is the absolute best section to watch the sport in person (moving your head back and forth at mid-court is for the birds). Okker was a solid player to be sure, but Ashe--well, he was on another plane altogether.

 
Bjorn Borg won 11 Grand Slam single titles in eight years and only lacked a US Open title, losing in 4 finals due to what some have suggested were mitigating circumstances (but also because he faced fierce competition--and trust me on this; if Federer or Nadal or Jokovic played in the 1970s and 80s they wouldn't have a third as many Grand Slam titles as they do now).  I did have an opportunity once to see Borg play John McEnroe in an exhibition, but I couldn't get to the box office in time. I didn't make the same mistake with Ashe--when his tickets went on sale I was first in line.

Arthur Ashe, Portrait in Motion by Arthur Ashe & Frank DeFord was published in paperback by Ballantine in 1976.  Bjorn Borg by Bjorn Borg & Eugene L. Scott was published in hardback by Sidgwick & Jackson of London in 1980 (it was published in the US simultaneously by Simon & Schuster).

 

 
What better way to end this post than by showing some great tennis covers drawn by Clarence "Boo" Doore (1913- 1988). Doore, an outstanding realist painter, composed figures and faces with an almost signature look about them. During his career he produced hundreds of action-oriented illustrations for men's magazines, pulps, advertising, comics, hardbacks, paperbacks, and of course an occasional program for the United States Lawn Tennis Association.

GAME, SET, and MATCH.

[© September, 2018, Jeffersen.]