David Saunders, son of artist Norman Saunders has been producing a series of art biographies of pulp era artists: Norman Saunders, Rafael DeSoto, Walter Baumhaufer, Allen Anderson, and now Boris Dolgov.

Boris Dolgov might be my favorite artist of Weird Tales magazine. I like Hannes Bok and some of Hugh Rankin’s interior illustrations but Dolgov always attracted my attention. He was the best artist for the magazine in the 1940s.

Boris Dolgov has been out a year. It is a print on demand book available in hardback or paperback. Dave told me that p.o.d was the only way to do the Dolgov book as it is a niche subject. I am glad he did.

Format is 8.5 x 11 inches, 186 pages. It is a combination of biography of Ivan “Boris” Dolgosheff, reproducations of what appears to be all of his cover and interior art, and a check list of published illustrations.

Ivan Dolgosheff was born in Odessa, Russia in 1910. His family fled the Russian Revolution in 1917 making it as far as Hawaii. His father took off. Mother and son made it to Canada where Ivan’s mother became ill and frail. She sent young Ivan to New York City to relatives. He got the name Boris from his mother.

Boris found work at a print shop while learning and studying art on the side. A chance meeting with Hannes Bok got him into the pulp magazines.He even collaborated a little with Bok.

As “Boris Dolgov,” he had art in Weird Tales, Stirring Science Stories, Cosmic Stories, Future. He was in every issue of Weird Tales September 1941 to July 1954.

David Saunders has tracked information including talking to the families of Dolgov’s step-children. Dolgov died in November 1958 in an accident falling off from a fire escape attempting to get into his apartment window while it was snowing. He had accidentally locked himself out. A shame as he might have found work as the horror and fantasy revival was about to happen.

I can’t recommend this book strongly enough. I will be picking up David Saunders’ book on Allen Anderson next. Anderson graced many a cover of Planet Stories. Now if he can track down information on Chester Martin who did three memorable covers for Planet Stories.