1994 - 10/1994 Meeting

Page Created: 09/25/10. Last Updated: 10/26/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 02/23/08.

DAVID STEVENSON

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: October 8, 1994.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 35.

Meeting Program: Talk by Del Rey Books/Random House art director.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

Del Rey Books Art Director David Stevenson was the featured speaker at the October 8, 1994 meeting of the S F A B C. While Philip De Parto, Nancy Denker, Eileen Madison, and John Upton were enjoying dinner with our guest at Steak and Ale on Route 17, Roy Greenberg and Carol Smith were leading a discussion of STAR TREK novels at the Final Frontier.

This was the second meeting of the Final Frontier and a bit more structured than the first. Roy Greenberg prepared a list of STAR TREK books published and talked about their merits and flaws. Carol counterpointed and attempted to draw additional people into the discussion.

The program petered out around 7:30 PM, although a couple of people had wandered downstairs earlier to watch STAR TREK, THE NEXT GENERATION. Random conversations continued until 8:00 PM. Steve Ferrero won the door prize, STAR TREK 3 by James Blish.

There were more announcements than usual as Philip De Parto had not had time to prepare an issue of THE STARSHIP SHUTTLE. We did not award door prizes last month, so we expanded the winner's list for October. Steve Ferrero (again), David Goldfeder, Theresa Griffin, Eileen Madison, George T Smith, and Pamela Webber were all awarded books.

David Stevenson has recently been named the Art Director for Del Rey Books after spending time as a Designer there and at Pocket Books. This was the first time he was giving a presentation of this sort.

His presentation consisted of a slide show depicting preliminary sketches, color roughs, finished paintings, and bookcover reproductions. He talked about the problems he has to solve, good and bad experiences he has had, and answered questions from the audience. He also brought a number of Del Rey titles with him and passed them out, suggesting that people take a chance on an author they had not previously sampled.

Mr Stevenson sees the art director as a middleman who tries to reconcile the oftentimes conflicting desires of the artist on the one hand and the publishing establishment (editors, publishers, sales and marketing people) on the other. He stated that many of the complaints about art directors voiced by illustrators were unwarranted since requests for changes frequently originated further up the chain of command.

One of the funnier stories he told concerned his escape from the area of romance covers. Since he did not want to be assigned to that area, he deliberately instructed his artist to show a bit more skin than was customary at that house. Although the book sold well, he got his wish and was transferred to another area. (Actually, the state of undress of characters on bookcovers was a running area of commentary by many in the audience throughout the presentation.)

The talk was both interesting and informative. Questions and answers ran on for quite some time.

Among the meeting's sidelights were John Upton showing photographs of costumes at the Worldcon and Mary Nash selling girl scout cookies. Roy Greenberg brewed tea and someone brought microwave popcorn.

There were about 18 of us who went out to the Horizon Diner after the meeting. As best I can recollect, dinees included Sharon Archer, Frances Caufield, Philip De Parto, Elizabeth Donahue, Alice Geisinger, David Goldfeder, Ernest Lilley, Robert Pinkus, Thomas Purdy, Robert Savoye, Carol Smith, Anthony Tellado, Pamela Webber, and Taras Wolansky.