Jesse Marinoff Reyes:
Here are a selection of the Dell mapbacks themselves, mostly attributed in some of the literature to the illustrator Ruth Belew. Detailed and lively, it strikes one as a much more inventive use of a book’s back cover over the interminable promotional blurbs found on covers today….
JMR Design
The Red Lamp, Dell Mystery No. 131
Dell Publishing, circa 1940s
Illustration: (likely) Ruth Belew
JMR Design
The Savage Gentleman, Dell Mystery No. 85
Dell Publishing, circa 1940s
Illustration: (likely) Ruth Belew
JMR Design
Greenmask, Dell Mystery No. 111
Dell Publishing, circa 1940s
Illustration: (likely) Ruth Belew
JMR Design
Chinese Red, Dell Mystery No. 260
Dell Publishing, circa 1940s
Illustration: (likely) Ruth Belew
Though this may not be a Ruth Belew, as it is a diagrammatic floor plan instead of an illustrative scene.
JMR Design
The One That Got Away, Dell Mystery No. 355
Dell Publishing, circa late-1940s, early-1950s
Illustration: (likely) Ruth Belew
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