Thursday, December 8, 2011

Darrell K. Sweet (1934-2011)

Darrell K. Sweet's cover for Castle Roogna (1979) by Piers Anthony
      
     I just read on Dragonsfoot that Darrell Sweet passed away earlier this week. Only in the last few years did I really become aware of just how many fantasy paperbacks he illustrated from the 70s-present. Some of the earlier ones I read with his covers were the Xanth series and the Hobbit/LOTR. In the 90s when I finally read the Silmarillion for the first time, it was the also the paperback with his painting of the Fall of Numenor:

The Fall of Numenor by Darrell K. Sweet, used as the cover of the 1982 Silmarillion paperback
     
     A few years ago I picked up a used copy of the Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans based on my memories of seeing the cover back in the 80s. I enjoyed it and ending up reading the entire series. Sweet illustrated the first five or so. Watt-Evans recently tweeted: "Darrell Sweet has died. In the early years of my career I was a "Darrell Sweet author," and his covers surely sold thousands of my books."





2 comments:

  1. One of my all-time favourite fantasy artists. I bought a large number of books on the basis of his colour cover illustrations. I recently started re-purchasing/re-reading some of those novels, looking specifically for the DKS covers.

    Sorry to hear he passed.

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  2. He also did a wonderful cover for Blish's "A Case for Conscience" and another for Kurtz's 'the Deryni Archives." Not sure, but I beleieve he did the covers fro Watt-Evans's Dusarra series as well.

    Definitely an artist to miss. R.I.P.

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