(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1971 edition of The Dakota Project (1968), Jack Beeching)
Unfortunately, science fiction covers from the 60s/70s are not always credited — Robert Foster’s covers are no exception. Originally I assumed that Foster had only produced a handful (see my first post on his work, Part I), but after searching under Bob Foster and identifying covers by sight I’ve cobbled together another varied/intriguing/unusual collection of his work.
His work are often characterized by fascinating collaged, geared, industrial machinery paired with nudes and semi-nudes arrayed against bleak alien landscapes. Strange poses and unusual costumes abound. I find his use of unusual textures (weird cytoplasmic orange covering rock in the Mythmaster cover, below) compelling and original. Foster’s The Dakota Project cover (above) is by far my favorite of the collection. However, occasionally I find the composition muddled (for example Alternities, below).
It’s rather sad that Robert Foster’s covers seldom received commissions for top quality/classc works (albeit, his covers grace a few works by Pohl, Ellison, Merril, and the like).
If you are intrigued by his work definitely check out Part I.
What are your favorites?
As always, are the books worth reading?
(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1969 edition of Ring of Violence (1968), Douglas R. Mason)
(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1969 edition of Sexmax (1969), Henry Cooper)
(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1968 edition of Daughters of Earth (1968), Judith Merril)
(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1970 edition of Taurus Four (1970), Rena Vale)
(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1972 edition of Over the Edge (1970), Harlan Ellison)
(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1974 edition of Alternities (1974), ed. David Gerrold)
(Robert Foster’s cover for the 1973 edition of Mythmaster (1973), Leo P. Kelley)
For similar posts, consult the Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art INDEX
Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations 
Thanks for posting these! These artists were treated as hacks so often, but, really, their art sold the books…
Thanks for stopping by!!
Were they? I think publishers understood the necessity of covers back then as they do now in selling books. It doesn’t mean that some of their work isn’t hack work but I’m not sure people thought they were… Just look at Ballantine’s publication catalogue — Powers cover after surrealist Powers cover… Works of art. Ballantine press chose to have Powers as their primary artist not the run of mill artist who cranks out funky aliens, naked women, and strapping spacemen.
You make an excellent point. I guess I wasn’t properly schooled in the matter. I thought these guys were treated more as cogs in a machine more than cover artists… Anyway, all that aside, I appreciate you posting these pictures because they don’t get enough recognition — maybe I had it the wrong way, they get less recognition now than they did then… It’s good to see the interne keeping their work alive and out there.
All the best, and you’ve got a great blog!
Of course some weren’t treated very well — like the authors themselves. Perhaps my example of Powers is an exception (he is the most famous). But, at the very least publishers didn’t require the illustration to “correctly” portray anything in the book — so they had some leeway in that regard.
Thanks for the kind words 🙂
You really can see a similarity in themes in his work. He was very, very good. Being a bit of a fan of machinery myself I like the way he works that into his illustrations. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across any of these book cover illustrations before, so kudos to you for helping me discover new to me stuff. Always a great pleasure.
You’re welcome. He’s one of my favorites. Definitely check out Part I for more of his great covers….
https://sciencefictionruminations.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/adventures-in-science-fiction-cover-art-the-collages-of-robert-foster/
The first cover (Turn Left at Thursday, Pohl) in Part I is in my top ten sci-fi covers….
Bob was wonderful.
I sort of want to read Sexmax now and I’d love to see the front of the outfit that guy’s wearing on the cover of Taurus Four.
Hehehe. I suspect the front of the male costume in Taurus Four looks like the guy’s similar costume in Mythmaster….
Oh yes, it’s the same outfit. Brilliant!
Joachim,
Just came across your site and delighted to see Robert Foster’s cover illustration reproductions. He was my illustration teacher in 1958 and 59 at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He was also a good friend, and I last visited him at his apartment in N.Y. in 1968, when he was establishing himself as a very popular sci-fi cover illustrator.
You mentioned a muddled composition for the “Alternities” cover, but cover up the title and the composition is very solid. Illustrators rarely had control over titles and copy on the cover of a book. The titles were added by a designer rafter the illustration was finished. The illustrator would simply leave open space for the title and copy. Some designers were better than others at designing the title to coordinate with the illustration.
You are probably aware that he also illustrated the first four covers for a
reprint of John Norman’s “Gor” series. That was earlier in his career in N.Y., but may have opened doors for future sci-fi books.
Thanks for giving my friend Bob Foster a feature post.
Tom
Thanks for sharing! He’s always been one of my favorites. But yes, I’ve looked through his entire cover illustration list — I think his cover for Pohl’s Turn Left at Thursday is my favorite (in part one on his work).
I know that the artists had little control over the cover text (I guess I just found Alternities one of his weaker covers — color, etc) — just look at Powers’ wonderful canvas for Dick’s The Man in the High Castle ruined with a line of text cover the center…
Thanks for your comments!
Joachim, you may also be aware that Foster illustrated other impressive fiction novels besides sci-fi. “The Poseidon Adventure,” a number of Doris Lessing novels, Sumerset Maugham’s “The Narrow Corner.” and others. One of my favorite Bob Foster sci-fi covers is Fredrick Pohl’s “The Abominable Earthman.” However, every good or great illustrator did an occasional “clunker” during their career. Sometimes it was unavoidable due to demands and restrictions.
Foster also did high end illustrations for top ad agencies, which was very difficult to crack into. Color reproduction and photography improved, and photography became less expensive than illustration, which seriously cut into the advertising illustration market and forced many illustrators to seek work in other venues, such as pocket book covers. Also there was a lot of leeway on creativity in book covers. Advertising illustration and magazine story illustration was often restrictive to the taste of the art director.
Do you know if Foster illustrated J.P. Donleavy’s, “The Onion Eaters,
Christopher Hodder-William’s “The Main Experiment” and Robert Silverberg’s “The Masks of Time?” They look like his style but don’t see a name.
Yes, he did do The Masks of Time (not sure about The Main Experiment) — Internet Speculative Fiction Database has the best catalogue. But, it’s still incomplete.
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?43956
I have perhaps 200 science fiction paperbacks from 60s – 80s. would like to do something with them. Sell them or create something from them. online catalogue or whatever I don’t know. any suggestions.
Read them again? Write reviews? I dunno. I never really condone cutting up books (I know people make various art pieces with their cool covers). But yes, if you’re not going to read them you might as well sell them to someone who will.
MY FATHERS NAME WAS ROBERT OWENS FOSTER I WENT TO NY WHEN I WAS YOUNG HE DID COVERS FOR BOOKS HAD A DARK ROOM IN HIS APRT I WAS BORN IN SF IM WONDERING IF THIS MAY BE HIM
So far as I know, this Bob Foster didn’t have any children– though I’d be interested if he had.
FYI, This Bob Foster was married to a woman named Florence (Cohen), my aunt. Although they divorced after his stroke, they remained close and he didn’t marry again.
I’m sure it is if your mothers name was Joanne and you have a sister named Chrisine, and a brother I use to call Bobby. I’m Bobs youngest sister, your Aunt Kathy.
My name is Laura Melissa Foster. Robert Foster is my Paternal uncle and Edward foster is his younger brother. Their mother was Consuelo Owens Foster and they lived in Santa Clara, California growing up. Our Uncle Bob, lived in New York before he passed in the early 70’s and my Dad was a United Airlines pilot and often visited him . He (Bob) was divorced from his wife and family and I don’t believe had much contact ( they were in Ohio). I remember meeting Uncle Bob several times, anyway… My mom did our genealogy and Dad and my sisters and I have done some Ancestry Dna tests etcetera. We probably are related.
He did. I am his niece. He was divorced with a family in Ohio. Our family was Catholic, and divorce was of course frowned upon. I am the daughter of his youngest brother, Edward Thomas Foster.
“Doc Savage” model Steve Holland was the model for the perpendicular man in THE DAKOTA PROJECT.
Cool. Thanks for the insight! 🙂
I have the painting for Sex Max. I’ve been trying to track down if it was ever used as a cover, and now I know. I picked it up at a book store in Waterbury CT. At first I thought it was a poster, but on closer inspection saw that it was the real deal. The detail is spectacular, and it’s signed in white pencil.
Thanks for helping me track this down.
Send me a picture! ciceroplatobooks (at) gmail (dot) come
You’re welcome.
Yes, Bob had 4 children Robert, Christina, Susan & Thomas with his first wife Joanne. He also has 8 grandchildren (whom he never met) & numerous great grandchildren. I find it very sad that his family was unknown.
Im the artists son Robert j Foster. Dad started out in NewYork working out of little apartments ,but by 1968 could afford a roomy flat in one of the Kipps Bay towers.His second wife Florence,on her own initiative, did the leg work to get him a cultural grant that would free him to paint what he liked.but it wasn’t to be. He did find time in any case at one point to paint several small works of Op-Art that he gave to a local dinner in exchange for endless free lunches. He was charming guy; had a broad interest in the world, and I loved to listen to him hold forth on all manner of things as I watched him paint for hours.
Thanks for stopping by!
As you can see from the comments above from a few years ago, other family members have also stopped and commented. One claimed that he had no children!
I find all the personal details fascinating. A peek into the man behind the strange/wonderful covers…..
If I wrote the whole story about dad as I remember and was told , it would come to a little book. His mother’s maiden name was Consuelo Owens who danced and sang in the Zigsfield Follies until she married his father, Joseph, a business man, and photographer; one of the Gotham rags reporting: Zigsville Doll Marries Midwest Bread And Butter Man .That was in 1925, and he was born 10/29/27 in Springfield Ohio. …..He was a sickly child who working hard, lifting weights, boxing, and playing football made his own health. In his Junior year [1944] at Catholic Central High ,he drew three pencil portraits of former pastors of his parish,”The reason I graduated.” he’d joke ; works that show he was already a master renderer, and now hang in the Saint Raphael Church Community Center. ….In the late forties, dad attended an excellent illustration school in Los Angeles ;long periods away from Springfield nearly ending his engagement to my mother.Kinda glad it did’nt……Well, run out of allotted space. My love to aunts and cousin long not seen, but fondly remembered.
To continue a brief bio…dad taught from around 1954 till 1959 at an illustration school in an old office building downtown San Francisco.In early 1958 ,he collapsed there in the stairwell and, unable to get up,thought he was dying and that he’d waisted his life ,From then on was openly dissatisfied with his marriage ,but moved wife Joanne,and four kids to Danbury near Manhattan ,his careers Mecca in1960 ;but even with a gig at the Famous Artist school, it put us in a dire situation, compelling wife to leave with children for Springfield Ohio divorcing him in 1965 But he visited us there when he could. Until 1968 he worked out of little apartments in New York, then was able to afford a Kipps Bay flat .Around the same time met second wife Florence,a blessing Around 1975 his health faltered ;at least two stokes, heart trouble, and he died alone three years latter; still a relatively young man….I think he’d be surprised that his work garners so much interest today .
I own this Robert Foster painting, https://tolomeophotography.com/images/Robert_Bob_Foster.jpg, and wondering if someone can tell me where it might have been used. I’ve owned it for a handful of years and multiple searches over that time have turned up nothing. I can be reached at ray@tolomeophotography.com. Thank you. Ray.
Nice! As I’ve looked through his entire list of science fiction covers, I suspect that, if it was used, it appeared on a non-SF work.