February 25, 2009 – { feuilleton }

Philip José Farmer, 1918–2009

top left: artist unknown (1969); top right: Patrick Woodroffe (1975)
bottom left: Peter Elson (1988); bottom right: artist unknown (1995)

The great science fiction writer Philip José Farmer died today. I wrote about his more excessive works back in August 2007 and that post is as good an obituary as I could offer now. A Feast Unknown remains a favourite for pushing extreme content to a degree which would give William Burroughs pause whilst still functioning as a rollicking page-turner. Few writers could work on both those levels and do much more besides. Feast seems to be out of print today, which isn’t a surprise. Publishers are still a timid bunch for the most part and Farmer never pulled his punches.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Philip José Farmer book covers

Why I judge albums by their covers

Why I judge albums by their covers | A note to JJ: Pearls Before Swine had Bruegel on one of their covers in 1968.

The art of Paul Richmond

Forgive Me Father For I Know Not.

Paul Richmond explores the development of his sexuality in a fascinating series of paintings which adeptly blend figurative and abstract elements. Some of these resemble painted Photoshop collages which may well be how they started out. If so he’s one of the first painters I’ve come across who works this way.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive