Nova

Item is a first edition of the science fiction novel, Nova, by Samuel R. Delany. The cover art was created by Russell FitzGerald.
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Acclaimed science-fiction writer Samuel R. Delany and his then-wife, the poet Marilyn Hacker, were a bohemian couple who spent time in San Francisco and their native New York. Through their friendship with the FitzGeralds, sci-fi became a new arena for Russell’s interest in mysticism and surrealism to flourish. Delany commissioned him to illustrate the covers for several of his books. In his sci-fi novel Nova, for which FitzGerald designed this cover, Delany thanks friends Helen – who had come to New York from San Francisco with her sister Pat – and Russell for their expertise on Holy Grail lore and the tarot. FitzGerald wrote that the tarot is “the highest mode of romantic meditation. […] I have been shown a way whereby the obvious can continue to veil the mysteries; […] I believe that any true fool can find here the heart of the secrets, which is nothing less than the nature of nature.”
-Jon Davies, 2024