Harper Torchbook covers

John A. Mellman wrote 2 essays discussing the mid twentieth-century non-fiction paperback series by the publisher Harper and Row. Totaling more than 1500 titles, the Harper Torchbooks covered serious topics at a time when paperback books were on the rise and were written by top scholars in their fields. Melman discusses the history of the series and in a subsequent piece inventoried the books and their cover artists. He found that Guy Fleming was one of the two most prolific cover artists for the “first generation” of the Torchbooks, providing jacket designs for 37 books of the series, and nearly all the books in the subseries: “The Rise of Modern Europe.” The Cover Artists of the Harper Torchbooks Series: A Preliminary List by John A. Mellman