Janet Halverson
This incredible collection corresponds to an exhibition and catalogue at Katherine Small Gallery in Somerville MA from October 2023, curated by Michael Russem.
from the Gallery:
“Janet Halverson ran with all the big mid-century designers. Her work got plenty of attention, but she, unfortunately, did not. She designed covers and jackets for books written by some of the most important authors of the twentieth century. That and the fact that those covers and jackets are highly regarded by contemporary designers of covers and jacket is, more or less, all that is known about her.”
learn more here:
https://ksmallgallery.com/blogs/exhibits/janet-halverson-an-introduction
From Katherine Small Gallery newsletter, posted 05.30.24:
Janet Halverson: The Update
All the News
No doubt you’ll recall our show about graphic designer Janet Halverson and the fact that she was a mystery to us. As the show came to a close, the Orange County Register ran a story about Janet and the show—and it was syndicated in some eighty papers. To be honest, we didn’t think anything would come of it. But then a few weeks later we got an email from Janet’s niece—who lives, like, thirteen miles from here. She and her husband came in and we had a nice visit. Here’s a little of what we learned:
1 Janet died in New York of Alzheimer’s in 2018. There was no obituary.
2 She was wicked smart, skipping several grades—which explains how she graduated from RISD at 19.
3 Could be a total charmer—although she disliked small children. Very quick with a quip.
4 Janet had two significant partners. One’s name was not recalled but he was half-Japanese. The other partner, Gerhard Hersh (Hirsch?), was a German Jew whose family was killed by Nazis. He was older than Janet and was called Uncle Jerry by the nieces and nephews. They never married as Janet didn’t care about such things.
5 Had a the second casting of a Dimitri Hadzi sculpture. A Rockefeller had the first casting.
6 Her niece once told Janet that she (the niece) was good at spotting Janet’s books in stores, but sometimes grabbed Paul Bacon’s work thinking it was Janet’s. Janet replied that Paul Bacon was a good designer to be mistaken for.
7 She hated her cover for The Thornbirds and resented that the publisher insisted on a naturalistic illustration. She said she never wanted to see the book again.
8 Janet was 5' 11" and had short hair.
9 None of her materials or books survive.

Harper’s Magazine (August 1966)

Harper’s Magazine (June 1966)

Harper’s Magazine (June 1966)

Harper’s Magazine (March 1966)

Harper’s Magazine (February 1966)

Harper’s Magazine (January 1966)

Harper’s Magazine (November 1962)

Harper’s Magazine (October 1962)

Harper’s Magazine (September 1966)

Harper’s Magazine (October 1966)

The Prisoner of Love

The Mordida Man

The Message in the Bottle

The Last Gentleman

The Morning After

May We Borrow Your Husband & Other Comedies of the Sexual Life

An Area of Darkness

A Book of Common Prayer

Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine

Composition No. 1

The Fixer

The Pre-Rephaelite Dream

Painting of the High Renaissance2

Essays on Elizabethan Drama

Antiworlds and “The Fifth Ace”

Venice Observed

Puritanism & Revolution

The Stones of Florence

Maker of Heaven and Earth

The Chinese Looking Glass

The Orgy

Baby, Come On Inside

Mount Analogue

The Trail of Dr. Adams

Zip: A Novel of the Left and the Right

The Game of Dostoevsky

Evolutionary Socialism

The Design of Everyday Things

Pandora’s Box

Boswell: A Modern Comedy

The Sudden View

Confrontation: Black and White

Battle for Manhattan

Before the Mayflower

JFK and LBJ

The Culture Consumers

Battle for the Mind

The Textile Arts

Curtains

The Dancing Bees

Man and the Living World

Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought

Human Nature in the Light of Psychopathology

And Still I Rise

The Summer Before the Dark

Charles Chaplin: My Autobiography
