[Original Cover Painting for a Seemingly Unproduced Science Fiction Novel, NOT IN OUR STARS]

New York: Monarch Books, 1964. Gouache and tempera on art board, 19.5 x 14 inches, total board size 25.75 x 20 inches. With Monarch Books' printed label on verso. Minor edge wear and thumb-soiling to margins, publisher's registration marks framing the edges of the painting. A visually stunning original painting produced as cover art for a seemingly unpublished Monarch Books mass market paperback title in the 1960s. The artist, Ralph Brillhart (1924-2007), painted just over a dozen covers for Monarch in three years. Monarch itself lasted only eight years, publishing lurid pulp fiction and sci-fi between 1958 and 1965. The painting is composed of three creepy green-masked figures in a field of fire at left, next to a field of textured tempera in dark purple, all set above a tranquil scene of a futuristic midcentury home comprised of two clear glass bubbles, radio antennae, and a tall tower with red and white alternating stripes along the length of the pole. After an exhaustive search of the history of Monarch Books online, we simply could not find a record of this novel's publication.