Rader, Paul

Rader, Paul

5 October 1906

Brooklyn, NY, USA

7 June 1986

Artist

Issac Paul Rader was a successful portrait painter in Detroit before furthering his studies in Europe. He returned to the U.S.A just before World War II. After the war, he resumed portraits but also did commercial illustration work for magazines such as Redbook and Family Circle.

Rader sold his first paperback cover in 1956 and was soon in high demand as a paperback cover artist. Through his agent, Balcourt Art Service, he sold over 300 covers to Midwood Books and several more to other publishers such as Fawcett, Ace, Beacon, and Berkley. Rader’s notebooks reveal that he was paid between $200 and $300 per cover.

In interviews with Rader’s family, Lynn Munroe discovered that Rader’s wife, Edyth was the model for many of his covers. Rader retired in 1970 for health reasons just as Midwood Books was turning to the use of photography for its paperback covers.

Mount Saint Vincent University Library thanks Elaine Rader for her permission to use images of her father's work on this website. Please visit Elaine Rader’s  website tribute to her father at http://www.paulrader.com/

Munroe, Lynn. "Midwood Books and Isaac Paul Rader." Sin-A-Rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties, edited by Brittany A. Daley, Hedi El Khoti, Earl Kemp, Miriam Linna, and Adam Parfrey, Feral House, Los Angeles, CA, 2005.

Munroe, Lynn. "The Notebooks of Paul Rader." Lynn Munroe Books, lynn-munroe-books.com/list64/RaderHome/RaderNotebooks-home.htm