Rafael D. Palacios (1905–1993) was a Puerto Rican-American freelance artist and illustrator specializing in book jackets and maps for major U.S. publishers in the mid- and late 20th century. Among the notable maps of his prolific and highly successful career are those in most of

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

's history books and in

Bruce Catton Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring in ...

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

books.

Biography

Of Spanish-Puerto Rican parentage, Palacios was born in

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, capital of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. When he was five months old his family moved to

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. He was educated in the Puerto Rican schools, but as an artist was largely self-taught. In 1928 he did his first fine arts sketches while in San Juan. He made something of a specialty of Afro-Caribbean portraiture. Palacios moved to New York City in the 1930s and remained there until moving back to Puerto Rico around 1980. In 1937 he was chosen, with two others, to represent Puerto Rico at the second annual Exhibition of American Art in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 1938 he also exhibited at the Delphic Studios in New York, where he presented his first display of Afro-Antillean art (a one-man show of his gouaches). That same year he also exhibited at the first Newspaper Artists' Exhibition in New York, and in several one-man shows at the Athenaeum in San Juan and at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

. Beginning in 1938 Palacios worked for American newspapers as an illustrator and translator of comic strips. In the mid-1940s, he shared a studio with several other freelance artists and did a number of covers and endpapers for

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...

. His endpapers had a strong cartographic quality and served a similar purpose with

Dell Books Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, I Confess (magazine), ...

' mapbacks. In 1948, Palacios was chosen to produce the maps for Gen.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

, '' Crusade in Europe''. Palacios later provided maps for Eisenhower's two volume memoir of his time in the White House, ''Mandate for Change'' and ''Waging Peace'' (which includes a "Map Portfolio by Rafael Palacios). Between the late 1940s and the early 1990s, Palacios published thousands of maps in several hundred books, many of them for Doubleday. Palacios specialized in endpaper maps and military history, particularly maps of World War II and the American Civil War. Palacios took over as the cartographer from George Annand for the ''Rivers of America'' series in 1956. The last 13 books in the series (1956–74) contain maps by him. Over the course of his career, Palacios made maps for books by many politicians, generals, and literary figures, including:

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

, Herman Wouk, Leon Uris, Cornelius Ryan, Gabriel Garcia Marquez,

Dean Acheson Dean Gooderham Acheson ( ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American politician and lawyer. As the 51st United States Secretary of State, U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to ...

Omar Bradley Omar Nelson Bradley (12 February 1893 – 8 April 1981) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He wa ...

, Dee Brown,

John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. (trilogy), ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a ...

, and John Toland. Palacios' mapmaking style was notable for his preference of freehand lines, hand-lettered labels, and resistance to mechanical production and typeset lettering. Palacios' papers, including original maps, correspondence, and books inscribed by the authors is now held at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Works illustrated

*''The Gift Horse'' (1945) by Frank Gruber (Bantam) *''The Fog Comes'' (1946) and ''Dead Center'' (1946) by Mary Collins (Bantam) *''Lydia Bailey'' (1947) by Kenneth Robert (Doubleday) ndpaper map*'' Crusade in Europe'' (1948) by

(Doubleday) *'' The Well of the Unicorn'' (1948) by

Fletcher Pratt Murray Fletcher Pratt (25 April 1897 – 10 June 1956) was an American people, American List of science fiction authors, writer of history, science fiction, and fantasy. He is best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War an ...

*'' A Short History of the Civil War: Ordeal by Fire'' (1948) by

(William Sloane) aps*''

The Return of Tarzan ''The Return of Tarzan'' is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the second in his Tarzan (book series), series of twenty-four books about the title character Tarzan. The story was first published in the pulp magazine ''New Story Mag ...

'' (1948 reprint), by E.R. Burroughs (

Grosset & Dunlap Grosset & Dunlap is a New York City-based publishing house founded in 1898. The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of Penguin Random House through its subsidiary Penguin Group. In recent years, through the P ...

) nd paper map, board, and title page drawings *''Canada: Tomorrow's Giant'' (1957) by Bruce Hutchison (Oxford University Press) aps*''Constantinople; birth of an empire'' (1957) by

Harold Lamb Harold Albert Lamb (September 1, 1892 – April 9, 1962) was an American writer, novelist, historian, and screenwriter. In both his fiction and nonfiction work, Lamb gravitated toward subjects related to Asia and the Middle East. Lamb was an advo ...

maps*''The Singing Wilderness'' (1957) by Sigurd F. Olson *''William Diamond's Drum'' (1959) eprinted as ''Lexington and Concord'', 1963by Arthur B. Tourtellot maps*''Around the World in 2,000 Pictures'' (1959), ed. by A. Milton Runyon and Vilma F. Bergane (Doubleday) 0 maps*''The Long Death: The Last Days of the Plains Indians'' (1964) by Ralph K. Andrist (21 maps) *''The Washing of the Spears'' (1965) by Donald R. Morris (Jonathan Cape) aps*''The Habsburgs'' (1966) by Dorothy Gies McGuigan (Doubleday) *''

Asimov's Guide to the Bible ''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'' is a work by Isaac Asimov that was first published in two volumes in 1968 and 1969, covering the Old Testament and the New Testament (including Deuterocanonical books, the Catholic Old Testament, or deuterocanonic ...

'' (1967, 1969) by

*''Stalin and His Generals: Soviet Military Memoirs of World War II'' (1969) by Seweryn Bailer (Pegasus) aps*'' The Last of the Bush Pilots'' (1969) by Harmon "Bud" Helmericks aps*'' Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' (1970) by Isaac Asimov *'' Great Cities of the Ancient World'' (1972) by L. Sprague de Camp (Doubleday) *''The Mexican War 1846–47'' (1974) by K. Jack Bauer, University of Nebraska Press *'' Shardik'' (1974), by Richard Adams ap*'' The Clan of the Cave Bear'' (1980) by Jean M. Auel *''Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath'' (1982) by John Toland (Doubleday) aps*''The Image of War: 1861–1865'' (1981–84), edited by William C. Davis (Doubleday) * "A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, 1861–1865" (1998), edited by, Allan Nevins

Da Capo Press Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional offi ...

References

External links

''Rivers of America'' series maps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palacios, Rafael 20th-century cartographers 20th-century American geographers 1905 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American artists