Poul Anderson was an incredibly prolific writer of science fiction, having written dozens of novels and countless short stories during his long career. Several of his works have been reprinted many times with different covers, so the amount of covers connected with his work is staggering. We’ve already talked about covers for Orbit Unlimited, The Worlds of Poul Anderson, and The Night Face. Now we’re looking at Poul Anderson’s Trader to the Stars.
Pieces of this book appeared in Analog and Astounding Science Fiction magazines, and it features Anderson’s recurring character Nicholas Van Rijn. It also seems to share a universe with several other Anderson works, including The Night Face.
This colorful cover features several animals, with what appears to be a green elephant front and center. In the background is an assortment of creatures, such as a bear and a pink rhinoceros. Way in the background are some humans, which appear to be naked.
No artist is credited inside the book, but some sources attribute the cover art to Paul Lehr (August, 1930 – July, 1998). Like Poul Anderson, Paul Lehr was remarkable prolific, having created covers for more than 300 books in the speculative genre alone (including this amazing cover for Frank Herbert’s The Santaroga Barrier).