Jack Gaughan

About Jack Gaughan

Jack Gaughan (1930-1985) was an American science fiction and fantasy artist who won the Hugo Award as Best Professional Artist and worked mainly for Ace and DAW Books, including the covers of Ace's 1965 paperback of The Lord of the Rings.

He was born John Brian Francis Gaughan on 24 September 1930 in Springfield, Ohio. Most of his book work was done for the editor Donald A. Wollheim, first at Ace Books and then at DAW Books from 1971. He drew maps for some Ace first editions of Andre Norton's Witch World novels, and covers for Pyramid Books editions of E. E. Smith's Lensman and Skylark series. For Ace's unauthorised 1965 paperback of The Lord of the Rings he painted the covers and hand-lettered the title pages.

In 1967 he was a Hugo finalist for both Best Professional Artist and Best Fan Artist, and Wikipedia records that he won both that year. He died in Springfield on 21 July 1985 and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2015.

For collectors

The Ace 1965 paperbacks of The Lord of the Rings carry his covers and lettered title pages; they were issued without Tolkien's authorisation, which is part of their bibliographical interest. His maps appear in some Ace first editions of the Witch World novels, including the 1963 first edition of the first book, and his covers are on the Pyramid paperbacks of Smith's Lensman and Skylark books.