Jael

“Shadrach In The Furnace”, by Robert Silverberg.  Second cover ever.....and I was doing exactly what I wanted, not having been art directed before:)  I ran all over Santa Cruz, California, looking for a BLACK OTHELLO TYPE ..... and while the sketches had been approved  by Jim, via Fed Ex ..... when the painting arrived in New York ..... Jim calls and says ..... "You made him Black".  I said "Well, Jim, Shadrach IS a black man in the book, ..... I was following true to the story".  Well he says ..... "I guess we can get away with it".  Apparently no black people were being painted on covers at that time.  This is around 1985.  He tells me later that Robert Silverberg was completely  DELIGHTED with the cover ..... so I like to kind of think I opened the way for ethnicity on book cover art:) The biggest thing I found out by THAT particular cover experience ..... was to, from then on,  try to figure a way out of not getting caught in the bar code.  If you'll look at the back of the book, my lovely neon computer surface is covered up by the @#$ bar code:) We live and learn the hard way.