RON LESSER AND THE PAPERBACK WESTERN
"[Main introduction to the Westerns volume, after my Foreword]"
"When I was a kid, sometime in the mid-Sixties, my family was visiting one of my uncles, and I picked up and read one of the paperback Western novels he had around his house. The title, author, and plot of that book escaped me over the years, but I always remembered the striking cover that showed a rugged-looking hombre wearing a long army coat, his legs extended nonchalantly in front of him as he took his ease in a rustic chair. But that “taking it easy” atmosphere was tempered by the fact that he was holding a gun and appeared both capable of and very willing to use it.
As time went by, I remembered that great cover, and I wanted to read the book again. There was just one problem.
I got it in my head that it was on a book called Steel to the South by Wayne D. Overholser.
Now, there is indeed a book of that title by that author, and it had several different paperback editions. But none of them looked anything like the cover I remembered. By this time, the Internet had come along, and there were thousands of paperback cover images to peruse, so I spent some time looking for it but never had any luck. Once again, I forgot about it for a while.
Then it occurred to me that I could ask my fellow members of the Men’s Adventure Paperbacks of the 20th Century group on Facebook. Those guys know everything! So one day I posted on there, described everything I could remember about the cover, and less than fifteen minutes later came the reply, complete with a photo of the book, telling me that what I was looking for was the 1965 Dell edition of Arrow in the Dust by L.L. Foreman.
And that cover that had stuck in my mind for literal decades?
It was painted by Ron Lesser."
Arrow in the Dust by L.L Foreman. Published by Dell in 1965 - Cover illustration by Ron Lesser.
***
"What is it that Ron Lesser brings to his Western covers? Well, a ton of talent, obviously. He’s just a fine painter with a great sense of color and composition. But his covers also deliver a strong aura of authenticity. The horses, the guns, the clothes, the settings all look real, as if they could have come right out of a historical photograph. At the same time, they convey a sense of drama and the potential for action that elevate the realistic trappings into something mythic. Look at the cover for Arrow in the Dust. It’s a man sitting in a chair. Yet there’s an undeniable feeling that he could come out of that chair at any second, and if he does, that gun in his hand is going to be blazing."
***
"To return to Arrow in the Dust, the book that started all this, with the kind assistance of Robert Deis, I’ve been able to trade emails with Ron Lesser and let him know how much I’ve enjoyed his work over the years. During our conversations, the idea of him doing a commission of a new version of that cover for me came up, and the idea of owning an original painting by Ron Lesser thrilled me. It’s every bit as beautiful as I expected it to be, too.
But, as a writer, my second thought was, Hey, can I use it as a book cover?
Ron graciously agreed to that idea, and my hope is that by the end of this year, there’ll be a brand-new Western novel out there in the world written by James Reasoner with a cover by Ron Lesser."
Arrow In The Dust original art by Ron Lesser, Size:18"X 25"