First printing of the famed Dell edition, with the landmark gothic cover that anticipates the "woman running from the house" designs of the gothic romance wave a decade later.
Very good.
Price: $300.00
First published by Doubleday in 1948, WEB OF EVIL was turned into a Dell Mapback three years later. The original Doubleday cover design features some elements of the gothic romance iconography — a woman turned away from a large mansion — but multiple windows are lit. In Stanley's more dynamic interpretation, the single-lit window glows in the background while the woman runs from the looming house.
Stanley was one of the most prolific and reliable illustrators for Dell in this era, and many of his covers were professional collaborations with his wife. William Lyles includes this except in his history of Dell: "Rhoda and Bob work as a team. We [Dell] furnish Bob with a rough sketch of what we want. From this he makes a color sketch. After this has been approved, Rhoda plans and makes a photograph which Bob uses as a model from which he can paint the final picture" (72-3). Both Bob and Rhoda took turns as models, depending on the needs of the cover; WEB OF EVIL features Rhoda as the cover model.
Read more: Lyles, Putting Dell on the Map; Lyles, Dell Paperbacks [...] A Catalog-Index; Paige, The Gothic Romance Wave.
New York: Dell, [1951]. 6.5'' x 4.25''. Original color pictorial wrappers with design by Robert Stanley, Dell #479, map on rear wrapper, cover price 25c. All edges stained green. Publisher's ads at rear. 287, [1] pages. Faint creasing at joints and down center of front cover. A touch of waviness to textblock; toned leaves, else clean. Edge stains vivid.
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