If you are of a certain age, you remember it well: The creepy, haunting, downright iconic—and totally weird—cover of the 1976 Dell edition of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.
But while many of us remember being scared by (and/or fascinated with) this image, there’s an unexpected mystery behind it: No one seems to know who the artist is.
Artist Michael Whelan posed the question to Twitter:
Looking for help solving a mystery of who illustrated this cover for A WRINKLE IN TIME (Dell, Laurel Leaf 1976).
The art is uncredited in the book. The link details where breadcrumbs have led so far:https://t.co/MCwfvXscOG pic.twitter.com/NwjrRu5cfZ
— Michael Whelan is no longer here (see sticky) (@whelanmichael) May 25, 2023
The blog post Whelan points to is by author S. Elizabeth, who has done an impressive amount of digging—everything from a simple reverse image search to reaching out to an assortment of sources. As she mentions, even the Internet Science Fiction Database does not have the answer—though it does note the mystery. Between Elizabeth’s queries and the commenters, it’s been determined that the image is not by Charles Lilly, The Brothers Hildebrandt, Boris Vallejo, Enric Torres-Prat, or Manuel Sanjulain.
Elizabeth tweeted the question at the Madeleine L’Engle Twitter account, which is run by the author’s granddaughter, but she didn’t know either:
— Madeleine L'Engle (@MadeleineLEngle) May 10, 2023
She also started a conversation in the Unresolved Mysteries subreddit, resulting in a fascinating rabbit hole of suggestions.
We’ve started asking publishing colleagues and friends, but so far have no answers. But someone must know who created this armless centaur who haunted the dreams of an entire generation.
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The Saint of Bright Doors
Ah! Thank you so much for sharing this with your readership! The more heads thinking on this weird mystery, the better :)
Now I’m wondering who contracted for the book at Dell and who may have worked with them.
Perhaps Jean-Leon Huens?
This is by Leo and Diane Dillon, I believe! They did many fantasy covers as well as covers for authors like James Baldwin. I adore them.
Actually maybe it’s not, lmao. They did do a Wrinkle in Time cover but it’s different than this one…
Weird green face/red eye guy looks very familiar, almost like the image was lifted or copied from another SF cover of roughly the same era. My brain wants to say it’s on a Heinlein cover but that could easily be incorrect.
If I could figure out how to use the advanced search at ISFDB, I would look for all novels in paperback published by Dell within a year or so on each side of the publication date for this one. Then look up who the cover artists were for those and see if any of their covers look similar in style. On the theory that it’s unlikely (though not impossible) that somebody would be contracted to do just one cover for an established publisher.
I wonder how many artists ruled out in the essay will be suggested here in comments.
Any minute now, some wag will suggest James McLaren Nicoll (1892-1986).
Have you queried Bruce Pennington? Looks like he did some cover art for Dell in the 70s and he uses some similar rich green hues. Worth an ask at least.
http://www.brucepennington.co.uk/
Also, this is a beautiful classic cover rabbit hole and it might be worth speaking with the site author.
https://raggedclaws.com/category/illustration-art/book-covers-illustration-art/
The one I haven’t seen mentioned is Frazetta. But I would think the winged guy would have a bigger chest if it was Frank. He liked to pump them up, so to speak.
I’m currently looking at the cover of a short story collection published in 1985 called Snowfall and Other Chilling events by Welsh author Elizabeth Walter. Published by Stein and Day the cover is credited to artist Steve Kropp. I found it last week in a used book shop. Stylistically, the cover of Snowfall shares some traits with the cover of AWiT including an ethereal and sinister face looming over a barren landscape. I tracked down the artists website and put the question to him. It’s probably a long shot and would be an astonishing bit of synchronicity if it all lines up. If he should write back, I’ll post his reply here whatever the outcome
Another person said the name already, but I’ll second it here. I already went on an extensive hunt when a friend asked on FB about the cover. The artistic style is very similar to some other 1970s covers, notably for an Anne McCaffrey book. My vote is for Bruce Pennington.
For the sake of future readers who might find this post but not the later followup: the answer is Richard Bober.
https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2023/09/01/artist-known-wrinkle explains how.