H. Lawrence Hoffman Explained

H. Lawrence Hoffman (23 October 1911 – 20 January 1977) was a commercial book jacket designer, illustrator,calligrapher and painter who worked in New York City. He illustrated book covers for over 25 publishing companies, including Alfred A Knopf, Pocket Books, Popular Library, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, The Viking Press, and Random House. Over the course of his career, he illustrated over 600 book jacket covers.

Hoffman graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1934 and then completed two years of post graduate study in Commercial Art from RISD. He moved to New York City with the $200 he was awarded for winning a competition to design a coin for the 1936 300 year Rhode Island Tercentennial. He began his career as an Art Director at the A.M. Sneider Advertising Company (1938–1941) and at Immerman Art Studios (1941–?). After leaving Immerman, he worked as a free-lance artist and book illustrator for the remainder of his career. He also taught illustration and lettering at The Cooper Union (1960-1967) and was a Professor of Art at C.W. Post University (1967–1976).

Hoffman began his career doing drawings for the pulp magazine, "Thrilling Mystery Magazine", A Ned Pines publication, and book cover illustrations for the emerging mass market paperback industry that included Pocket Books, Bantam Books, and Green Dragon. Beginning around 1943, Hoffman illustrated almost all of the first 100 paperback covers for Popular Library. Hoffman repeated the cover illustration as a smaller line drawing on the title page.[1]

In 1947, he won a prestigious commission to design the cover, frontispieces and 21 full or half page illustrations for “The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer: A New Modern English Prose Translation by R.M.Lumiansky” published in 1948 by Simon & Schuster. The book was selected as one of the 50 best books of the year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Father to David Hoffman, filmmaker.

Illustrated

Cover Art

Some of the numerous book covers that H. Lawrence Hoffman illustrated:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Schreuders, Piet, Paperbacks, U.S.A., A Graphic History, 1939-1959, Blue Dolphin Enterprises, San Diego, 1981
  2. Book: Amazon.com: Beyond the Barriers of Space and Time . Judith Merril. November 1954 . Random House . 2010-12-29.
  3. Web site: Amazon.com: Alien Art . Gordon R. Dickinson. Amazon . 2010-12-29.
  4. Book: Amazon.com: Kill My Love . Kyle Hunt. January 1958 . Simon and Schuster . 2010-12-29.
  5. Book: Amazon.com: Palace Under the Sea . Elizabeth P. Heppner. January 1963 . Macmillan & Company . 2010-12-29.

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