WILDERNESS is the only book I've read by bestselling author Robert B. Parker. However, at the insistence of my wife, a longtime Spencer fan, it won't be the last. Ideally she would have me read Promised Land next, Parker's 1976 Edgar Award winning fourth Spencer novel, to better gauge the positioning of Wilderness, a non-series, standalone novel published by Delacorte in 1979. Because, while Wilderness is ostensibly a powerful story about found courage (some would say forced), and styled by crisp dialogue and brutal action, it still reads for the most part like a lesser rehash of James Dickey's 1970 novel, Deliverance. In truth, I was more impressed with the cover art than I was with the story. My wife, though, remains confident that any further reading of Parker will turn me into a fan. We shall see.
"Aaron Newman is a writer greatly concerned with matters of courage and honor. He is a weight lifter and a jogger. One day he witnesses a murder and identifies the murderer: Adolph Karl, a professional mobster. Newman agrees to testify against Karl. Then Newman's life is threatened. Janet Newman is mistreated, and Newman recants. Recanting humiliates him. The police are scornful of him. His wife is ardent for revenge, and the continuous sense of random menace frightens and demeans him. Husband and wife turn their anger and fear upon each other. The loose ends of the marriage begin to fray. Urged by his wife and his friend Chris Hood, Newman decides he must kill Karl. Killing Karl will restore the balance of justice, redeem the source of fear. The act is difficult to contemplate, awful to do, but worse to leave undone. With his friend, Newman hunts Karl, first through the streets of the city and then, with wife and friend, to southwestern Maine, into forests as trackless as the moral wilderness into which Aaron and Janet Newman have plunged. There is death in the wilderness, and rebirth, and a final momentous chase. "
C. Michael Dudash, whose style is reminiscent of David Grove, painted the jacket art on the first hardcover edition of Wilderness (seen above), which was published by Delacorte Press in 1979. Dudash was a professional illustrator for twenty-five years, producing art for for a variety of hardcover and paperback publishers, clients, corporations and movie studios, before turning his attention firmly towards religious art and western art. His paintings today of the Old West are some of the finest that that field has ever seen, and in 2016 they earned him a much deserved membership into the prestigious Cowboy Artists of America.
James Avati has been called the "Rembrandt of Paperback Book Covers", and rightly so. He was one of the most important and influential artists in the industry from the moment he started producing paperback covers in the late 1940s until at least the late 1960s, when, for whatever reason, he stopped signing his work. You won't find his signature on this paperback edition of Wilderness, published by Dell in 1980, or on any of the outstanding covers he produced after the 1960s. So let's assume that you're not an obsessed freak like me, who's spent years studying cover art, and not seeing a signature can cause you to have trouble discerning between the different realist illustrators that are exponentially represented on paperbacks. My advice is to get your hands on a copy of The Paperback Art of James Avati (Grant, 2005). After that the subtleties of his style will be forever etched in your mind.
"Aaron Newman writes books. Macho books about fear, danger, and
courage. But on the morning he witnesses a brutal murder, a world of
fantasy becomes a terrifying reality. if he talks, his wife and children
will suffer. if he does nothing, he can never face them--or
himself--again. Pitted against his own fears and a ruthless, implacable
enemy, Aaron Newman set out to kill the killer... stalking him deep into
the Maine woods, where cunning and brute force are the hunter's weapons
and survival of the fittest is the law of the... Wilderness."
Yes, I must humbly eat crow here, after patting myself on the back so blatantly for believing I can easily recognize most cover artists. With no visible signature here, or credit inside, I am rendered mute as to the identity of this particular edition's realist artist (hey, maybe it's Avati again!). Dell published this 7th printing of Wilderness in 1983. Later reissues continued to incorporate this same cover illustration (a good one), as seen in the example below.
"A stunning tale of evil fought on its own ground, and of three people jerked by circumstances out of their peaceful lives into a deadly and primitive battle." --- Playboy Book Club Magazine.
A paperback reissue from Dell, regurgitating the knife, circa late 1980's or perhaps early 1990's.
Bonus Cover: Paul Bacon produced the jacket art on the first hardback edition of Promised Land, which Houghton Mifflin published in 1976. I've been trying to locate a copy of the first paperback edition, or even a good image of it, for quite some time now but to no avail. I'll keep looking though, and if I find one I'll post it in accordance.
"Rejoice, Parker fans! Spenser--the gutsy hero of the Godwulf Manuscript, God Save the Child, and Mortal Stakes-- is breaking all the rules again, and when his newest adventure leads him to summertime Cape Cod he forgets the private investigator's first law: Don't make waves. He's supposed to be looking for a runaway wife, but the hunt soon embroils both Spenser and his friend Susan Silverman in an assortment of fools and villains with extortion, bank robbery, and murder on their minds. The result is another witty, acerbic tale in the great Spenser tradition--a treat as artfully prepared as one of his gourmet masterpieces."
HERE'S A FEW more book covers by C. Michael Dudash:
Turkey Hash was published in paperback in 1984. I'm guessing that this novel about delinquent youth by Craig Nova was originally intended for a YA audience, released as it were under Dell's exclusive Laurel banner, but according to the reviews I read it was also tense enough for adults to enjoy as well. The excellent cover art, an oil on board painting, was produced by Dudash.
"For as long as he can remember, Niles Cabro has wanted only to survive. What else was there to hope for in a family where there was "all of the hate and none of the love"? What else to look for in the bleak fringes of Los Angeles, a landscape of rusted trailers and sprawling junkyards? For Niles Cabro, survival means crimes that range from the petty to the grotesque, from burglary to a brutal murder that he may or may not have imagined. Survival means depending on nothing but the savage loyalty of friends like Lophead and Horse-T. And sometimes survival means ditching those friends when they go down."
Craig Nova also published the novel Incandescence in 1984 through Dell's Laurel banner, but the story's description doesn't sound like young adult fare--far from it actually, even more so when you see the racy cover of the hardback first edition with its female tush on display! This Dudash painting is most likely what was on the Laurel paperback edition and is courtesy of Heritage Auctions, but unfortunately, I am unable to find the actual book cover itself anywhere online.
"Stargell had it all: a prestigious job at a think tank; a beautiful Greek wife; and money enough to indulge his expensive tastes. But when he loses his job for using the think tank's computer to play the horses, his life starts taking a very definite turn for the worse. Suddenly he's broke, his wife is going crazy, and a very determined Lower East Side loan shark has his number. In the midst of all this danger and chaos, however, the resilient and darkly comic Stargell pushes his limits while playing if by ear. Stargell is sustained by those rare moments of redeeming grace when every experience feels vital and valuable, when even in the darkest moments."
Pocket published Jeffrey Archer's bestselling thriller, A Matter of Honor, in mass-market paperback in 1987. Dudash produced the cover art.
"As Adam Scott opens the yellowed envelope bequeathed to him in his father's will, an incredible drama begins. The terrible secret that shadowed his father's military career unfolds a time bomb of intrigue, passion and greed, reaching back to the Nazi plunder of Europe... into the mysterious heart of Tsarist Russia. In the deepest vault of a Swiss bank, Scott discovers a priceless icon, the key to a shocking document that could forever change the balance of power between America and the Soviet Union. Few men know of its existence. All will kill for it. When his lover is suddenly kidnapped, Scott is forced to flee across Europe, fighting desperately for his life against the KGB, The CIA, and even his own countrymen."
Max Byrd's Early American historical saga Jefferson, a novel about Thomas Jefferson when he was an ambassador to France, was given a pretty good cover painting by Dudash, maybe even better than the book deserved--although there are plenty of folks who think highly of Byrd's effort, including historian Joseph Ellis. Bantam published this item in hardback in 1993, and then later in paperback using the same Dudash cover art.
"It is 1784, and Jefferson, the newly appointed American ambassador to the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, has just arrived in Paris to represent his fledgling nation. It is a city adrift in intrigue, upheaval, and temptation, a city that will challenge Thomas Jefferson's principles, incite his passions, and change him forever. Through the eyes of William Short, Jefferson's young secretary and avid protege, we peer into the private and public life of the future president, watching the forces that shape the young Thomas Jefferson as he builds his dream of an America with fellow patriots John Adams and Ben Franklin, and as he struggles between political ambition and an unexpected crisis of the heart with a woman who has the power to destroy him. Jefferson offers a rare glimpse behind the face of the complex Virginian showed the world. Subject to periods of dark melancholy, cold anger, and interludes of romantic intimacy, Thomas Jefferson committed acts of exquisite mercy and profound ruthlessness. Here, we encounter the rumors of misconduct that dogged him in his rise to power, his bitter feuds with political opponents Patrick Henry and Aaron Burr, and the pivotal role he played in the bitter War of Independence."
Brittle Innings was yet another of author Michael Bishop's brilliant additions to the world of literature. Dudash produced a very evocative jacket illustration to coincide with the novel's evocative, circa 1940's era of professional farm-club baseball. Bantam published this in hardback in 1994.
"For seventeen-year-old Danny Boles, a 5'5' shortstop out of Tenkiller, Oklahoma, the summer of 1943 would be a season to remember. The country's at war, and professional baseball needs able-bodied men. Danny's headed for Highbridge, Georgia--home of the Highbridge Hellbenders, a Class C farm club in the Chattahoochee Valley League. He's a scrappy player with one minor quirk--a violent encounter on the train to Georgia has rendered him mute. Danny's idiosyncrasy, however, is nothing compared to that of his new Hellbender roommate, an erudite seven-foot giant by the name of Jumbo Hank Clerval. With his yellow eyes, strangely scarred face, and sausage-sized fingers, Hank seems to have been put together in a meat-packing plant. But he plays a mean first base and can hit the ball a mile. With the Helllbenders in a pennant race as hot as the relentless Georgia sun, the eloquent Clerval forms a special kinship with the speechless kid from Oklahoma. As the season moves inexorably toward its dramatic--and ultimately violent conclusion, Danny soon realizes that Hank is not an ordinary man, but something more complex... more mysterious than he'd imagined."
Zebra published The Duke of Snider by Duke Snider and Bill Gilbert in paperback in 1988, although this image is of hardback edition, in all probability a 'Book Club Edition,' Zebra being primarily a paperback imprint. Dudash produced the composite illustration used on both formats.
"From the sandlots of Compton, California to the most exciting team professional baseball ever fielded, Duke Snider's 18 years in the major leagues encompass a glorious era of baseball that will never be seen again. During a playing career that touched three decades, Edwin Donald Snider graced centerfield at Ebbets Field and later Chavez/Ravine's Dodger Stadium, collected over 2000 hits and crushed more than 400 home runs over major league fences. But The Duke of Flatbush is far more than a Hall of Famer's personal retrospective of a superb major league career. Duke Snider is the first member of the 1950s Dodgers to take a close, personal look at his teammates on the extraordinary Brooklyn team--a team that always entered autumn so full of hope, only to find catastrophe. Here are indelible images of the boys of summer who became a symbol of baseball--and America itself--in the '40s and '50s: Pee Wee at shortstop with his arm around Jackie's shoulders... Skoonj throwing out runners at third... Brooklyn fans hollering "Oisk!"... Leo kicking dirt at umpires... Campy chirping, "Same team that won yesterday is gonna win today!"... Gil taking the trow at first for the last out. For the Duke of Flatbush, and everyone else lucky enough to be young in that special time: Ebbetts Field still stands... the Brooklyn Dodgers still live!"
BATTER UP!
[© February, 2020, Jeffersen]
