Summers, Ian
Entry updated 23 March 2026. Tagged: Artist, Author, Editor.
(1939- ) US author, designer, editor and book packager specializing in sf art books; he began to publish work of genre interest with Tomorrow and Beyond: Masterpieces of Science Fiction Art (graph coll 1978), which assembles more than 300 paintings, mostly created as sf or fantasy book covers and here presented without cover text. This received a Locus Award as best art book, as did Summers' subsequent project Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials (graph 1979; rev vt Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature 1987) with Wayne Douglas Barlowe and (uncredited) Beth Meacham. Other credits include The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt (graph coll 1979) with The Brothers Hildebrandt, for which Summers wrote the text, and Di Fate's Catalog of Science Fiction Hardware: A Visual Survey of the Mechanical Marvels of the Future – What They Are, Where They Came From, and How They Work (graph coll 1980) with Vincent Di Fate, where his credit is for art direction and design.
Mute Evidence (1984) with Daniel Kagan is a long, sober nonfiction examination of the 1970s US "cattle mutilation" mythos, a complex of Paranoid theories in which damage to dead cows was variously ascribed to Aliens, UFOs, cultists practising sacrifice, secret government projects and so forth, rather than – as concluded by the FBI report and this book – the inroads of natural predators. [DRL]
Ian Summers
born Paterson, New York: 29 September 1939
works
nonfiction
- The Art of the Brothers Hildebrandt (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979) with The Brothers Hildebrandt [coll: graph: text by Summers: hb/The Brothers Hildebrandt]
- Mute Evidence (New York: Bantam Books, 1984) with Daniel Kagan [nonfiction: pb/]
works as editor
- Tomorrow and Beyond: Masterpieces of Science Fiction Art (New York: Workman Publishing, 1978) [coll: graph: hb/David Schleinkofer]
- Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials (New York: Workman Publishing, 1979) with Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Beth Meacham [graph: Meacham is uncredited: hb/Wayne Douglas Barlowe]
- Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials: Great Aliens from Science Fiction Literature (New York: Workman Publishing, 1987) with Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Beth Meacham [graph: rev vt of the above: Meacham is uncredited: hb/Wayne Douglas Barlowe]
- Di Fate's Catalog of Science Fiction Hardware: A Visual Survey of the Mechanical Marvels of the Future – What They Are, Where They Came From, and How They Work (New York: Workman, 1980) with Vincent Di Fate [coll: graph: pb/Vincent Di Fate]
links
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