Lot 87239: FRANK R. PAUL (American 1884 - 1963) Apocalyptic

FRANK R. PAUL (American 1884 - 1963) Apocalyptic New York Wonder Stories cover, February 1933 Gouache on board 22 x 17.5 in. Signed lower left This classic pulp cover painting represents Paul at his finest: a definitive image from science-fiction's pioneering early era, marked by nothing short of Earth-threatening cataclysm, vividly painted by one of the undeniable giants of the genre. On his website, Gallery of Frank R. Paul's Science Fiction Artwork, author Frank Wu notes, "In the same year as the Wonder Stories cover, Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer published their novel, When Worlds Collide, which raises the possibility that one may have inspired the other. In their novel, two planets wander into our solar system, the first causing tidal waves and flooding on the earth, the second planet destroying our world." The cover for the 1979 paperback edition of The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, edited by Peter Nicholls, was based on this apocalyptic scene -- out of the millions of science fiction scenes created through the ages, this was the one chosen as the symbol for science fiction.