May Talk by Mark Golder on Stephen Russ

 We were very pleased to welcome back Mark Golder who has given many excellent talks to the Friends in the past and supported us in many ways. This was a fascinating talk shining a light on Stephen Russ and the importance of book cover art. Here's the illustration used for the talk:

'The Illustrator, Stephen Russ'

by Mark Golder

Stephen Russ lived at Shaw Hill near Melksham and taught fabric design and then printmaking for thirty years at Bath Academy of Art (Corsham); but he is better known in the world of illustration as the designer of dust jackets for over eighty books between 1945 and 1975, and as the designer of covers for the Penguin Poetry series in the 1950s and 1960s. He also produced a generic cover for Penguin's D. H. Lawrence novels, and it was his design of a phoenix rising from the flames on the front cover of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' when Penguin was taken to court for obscenity. This illustrated talk will concentrate on the dust jackets and cover illustrations, considering how they reveal the artist and the major concerns of the times in which he lived.

Here are some photos taken at the talk:

It's difficult to take good photos in the Council Chamber at the Civic Offices but I think you get a good feeling of the atmosphere by not cropping the photos.