Science fiction artist Paul R. Alexander has died. I wrote about him previously on this blog, on November 17, 2011. (Click here to read what I wrote.) I showed some of Mr. Alexander's artwork when I last wrote of him, but any small part is inadequate for lovers of art and illustration. Paul Alexander was a surpassingly good artist.
He was born on September 3, 1937, in Richmond, Indiana, son of Fred and Ora Olive Alexander. He graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, in 1967. Although he lived and worked on the East Coast, Mr. Alexander returned to the Midwest later in life, living, working, attending church, and enjoying his hobbies and friends in Greenville, Ohio. That is where he died, too, on June 14, 2021, at age eighty-three. One new bit of information on him: Paul Alexander was a model train enthusiast. Called a "gadget artist" by Vincent Di Fate, Mr. Alexander knew his gadgets, from miniature trains to immense spacefaring vehicles of the imagination.
Paul Alexander's first work listed in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDb) is his cover for The Eyes of Heisenberg by Frank Herbert, published forty-five years ago this month, in December 1976. His last came at around the turn of the current century, in the period 1998-2001. In addition to covers and interior art for science fiction magazines and books, Mr. Alexander created illustrations for Encyclopedia Britannica, Institutions Magazine, and the New Jersey Telephone Company. He also did designs for the packaging for Robotix toys made by Milton Bradley. Click here to see more.
There has been so much sadness these past few years, especially in the last two. Now we have more sadness. But at least we also have the undying work of Paul Alexander.
To read an obituary in the science fiction magazine Locus, click here.
Text copyright 2021 Terence E. Hanley
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