H. Lawrence Hoffman

H. Lawrence Hoffman (23 October 1911 – 20 January 1977) was a commercial book jacket designer, illustrator,calligrapher and painter who worked in New York City. He illustrated book covers for over 25 publishing companies, including Alfred A Knopf, Pocket Books, Popular Library, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, The Viking Press, and Random House. Over the course of his career, he illustrated over 600 book jacket covers.

Hoffman graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1934 and then completed two years of post graduate study in Commercial Art from RISD. He moved to New York City with the $200 he was awarded for winning a competition to design a coin for the 1936 300 year Rhode Island Tercentennial. He began his career as an Art Director at the A.M. Sneider Advertising Company (1938–1941) and at Immerman Art Studios (1941–?). After leaving Immerman, he worked as a free-lance artist and book illustrator for the remainder of his career. He also taught illustration and lettering at The Cooper Union (1960-1967) and was a Professor of Art at C.W. Post University (1967–1976).

Hoffman began his career doing drawings for the pulp magazine, "Thrilling Mystery Magazine", A Ned Pines publication, and book cover illustrations for the emerging mass market paperback industry that included Pocket Books, Bantam Books, and Green Dragon. Beginning around 1943, Hoffman illustrated almost all of the first 100 paperback covers for Popular Library. Hoffman repeated the cover illustration as a smaller line drawing on the title page.[1]


In 1947, he won a prestigious commission to design the cover, frontispieces and 21 full or half page illustrations for “The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer: A New Modern English Prose Translation by R.M.Lumiansky” published in 1948 by Simon & Schuster. The book was selected as one of the 50 best books of the year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Father to David Hoffman, filmmaker.

Illustrated



  • The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer Translation by R.M. Lumiansky, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1948
  • Beyond the Barriers of Space and Time by Judith Merril, hard cover, Random House; 1st edition (November 1, 1954)[2]
  • Father Marquette and the Great Rivers by August Derleth, Vision Books, 1955
  • Cross in the West by Mark Boesch, Vision Books 1956
  • Fighting Father Duffy by Jim Bishop and Virginia Lee Bishop, Vision Books, New York, 1956
  • Governor All Smith by James A. Farley and James C. G. Conniff, Vision Book, Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, New York, 1959
  • More Champions in Sports and Spirit by Ed Fitzgerald (1919-2001)(sports writer, editor Sport magazine), Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959
  • The Canterbury tales of Geoffrey Chaucer : a new modern English prose translation, translated by R.M. Lumiansky, Hoffman, Washington Square Press, 1960, 1967
  • Alien Art, by Gordon R. Dickson, hardcover, E. P. Dutton (1973) [3]
  • The Building Book: About Houses the World Over by Evelyn E. Smith, Howell Soskin publishers, New York, 1972

Cover Art


Some of the numerous book covers that H. Lawrence Hoffman illustrated:

  • 13 White Tulips, by Frances Crane, Random House, 1953
  • Lady Killer, by William Hardy, A Red Badge Mystery, Dodd, Mead & Co, 1957
  • New York City Folklore, by B.A. Botkin, Random House, 1956
  • African Poison Murders, by Elsbeth Huxley, Popular Library, #100, 1946
  • Mother Finds a Body, by Gypsy Rose Lee, Popular Library #37, 1944
  • Congo Song, by Stuart Cloete, Popular Library #110, 1945
  • Dead of the Night, by John Rhode, Popular Library #56, 1945
  • Petro's War, by Alki Zei, E.P Dutton & co, 1972
  • The Angry Hills, by Leon Uris, Random House, 1955
  • Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, Pocket Books Inc. paperback, 1946
  • Drink to Yesterday by Mannining Coles, Bantam Books # 76, 1947
  • Murder '97 by Frank Gruber, New York: Rinehart & Company / Murray Hill Mystery 1st Edition 1948
  • Lummox by Fannie Hurst, Popular Library #101, 1946
  • Now We Are Enemies: The Story of Bunker Hill by Thomas J. Flemming, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1960
  • The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, Compass Books / Viking Press, New York, 1961
  • The News From Karachi by William Wood, Macmillan, New York, 1962
  • Palace Under the Sea, by Elizabeth P. Heppner, Macmillan (1963)[5]
  • The Portable Russian Reader: A collection Newly Translated from Classical and Present-day Authors by Bernard Guilbert Guerney, The Viking Press., New York, 1964
  • Modes of Thought by Alfred North Whitehead, New York: Free Press, 1968
  • Operation Manhunt by Christopher Nicole, Holt Rinehart and Winston 1970
  • Flight of Exiles by Ben Bova, E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, NY, 1972

References
  1. Schreuders, Piet, Paperbacks, U.S.A., A Graphic History, 1939-1959, Blue Dolphin Enterprises, San Diego, 1981
  2. Judith Merril (November 1954). Amazon.com: Beyond the Barriers of Space and Time. Random House. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  3. Gordon R. Dickinson. "Amazon.com: Alien Art". Amazon. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  4. Kyle Hunt (January 1958). Amazon.com: Kill My Love. Simon and Schuster. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  5. Elizabeth P. Heppner (January 1963). Amazon.com: Palace Under the Sea. Macmillan & Company. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
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