John Harris (b. 1948)
Drunkard’s Walk
signed and dated ‘John Harris. 1978’ (bottom left)
shellac on board
25⁷⁄₈ x 17⁷⁄₈ in. (65.6 x 45.2 cm.)
painted in 1978

The original dust-jacket artwork for the first edition of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game.

Ender’s Game, published in 1985, is a seminal work of modern science fiction. The novel follows the story of Ender Wiggin, a young boy recruited into a military training program to prepare for an impending alien invasion. Through intense training and simulated battles, Ender demonstrates exceptional strategic prowess, ultimately leading humanity’s forces in a decisive conflict. The book’s exploration of complex moral questions and its portrayal of a young protagonist in a high-stakes environment have resonated with readers and viewers alike, cementing its place as a classic in science fiction literature and leading to a series of sequels, spin-offs and adaptations.

In 1976, John Harris began to produce paintings which expressed the preoccupations with scale and space that remain with him to the present day. He was subsequently invited by NASA to witness a launch of the space shuttle and record the event in a painting, becoming the first British artist to be honoured in this way. That work now hangs in the Kennedy Space Centre and is part of the Smithsonian Collection. In 2015 he won the Chesley Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Drunkard’s Walk was originally commissioned by Granada in the UK for the cover of a novel by Frederick Pohl. Its iconic status, however, was brought about by its use as the dust-jacket artwork for the first edition of Ender’s Game in 1985, and all 33 subsequent impressions issued by Tor Books including the most recent in 2021 (ISFDB).

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner.

Torquay, Bearne’s Fine Art Auctioneers, “Other Worlds”, An Exhibition of Illustrators’ Works in the Realms of Fairies, Fantasy and the Future, 31 July-11 August 1989, no. 134.