Link: https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2025/10/28/episodes-we-love-artist-known

People who’ve been listening to Endless Thread for a while will know that we have a tradition of doing at least one — sometimes a whole handful — of spooky episodes as Halloween approaches, we which call "Endless DREAD."

This year’s installment is coming out on Friday, but in the meantime, we thought we’d drop an extra little something for the NEW listeners — people who have maybe just found our show through "Hidden Levels," the series we just wrapped up with 99 Percent Invisible.

If that’s you, welcome! On Endless Thread, we dig into wild and fascinating stories from the internet. Sometimes, those stories are first-person experiences. Sometimes, they’re untold histories. Sometimes they’re unsolved mysteries. And sometimes… they’re all THREE — like the one we have for you today.

We’re revisiting an episode from our archives that has to do with a very famous book and its very famous book cover, made by the artist… ehhhhhh... no one's known! Until now...
Cover for the 1976 Dell/Laurel Leaf paperback edition of "A Wrinkle in Time."
Cover for the 1976 Dell/Laurel Leaf paperback edition of "A Wrinkle in Time."

A couple years ago, as the writer Sarah Elizabeth was working on her book, "The Art of Fantasy" (out September 12th), a particular illustration kept popping into her mind's eye. It was the cover for the 1976 Dell/Laurel Leaf paperback edition of Madeleine L'Engle's classic sci-fi/fantasy novel "A Wrinkle in Time."

She wanted to include the piece in her book, but she didn't know who the artist was. "I thought, 'Oh, pish posh! Surely I'm going to find this in the first page of Google.' No. No, no, no!"

The answer isn't on any page of google, or any page of the physical book itself — not the copyright page where the rest of the credit information is, not the front or back cover, NOWHERE. Sarah posed the question in the Unresolved Mysteries subreddit. "This would be the kind of thing that the folks over at Endless Thread would have a field day over," someone commented.

And, indeed... we did! In this episode, Amory uncovers the artist behind this iconic illustration.