"The Ghost of Canby Hall, Book Cover"   Lot no. 2863

Robert Lee Berran was born in Mt. Vernon, New York on December 24, 1923 and was raised in Scarsdale, New York. Between the ages of 19 and 22 Bob Berran served as a combat medic in the United States Army during World War II from 1943 to 1946 with General Patton's Third Army in Europe. Before going into the service Bob studied with famous anatomy teacher George Bridgeman for one year. After World War II he studied at the Art Student's League in New York City from 1947 to 1950 under the G. I. Bill with well known artists Arnold Bank, Howard Trafton and for three years with Frank Reilly. After leaving the Art Students League Bob followed his friend Jimmy Bama to 20th Century Fox in New York City where he painted movie posters on a freelance basis for about 4 years. Bob then joined The Illustrators Group where the artists were mostly from the Haddon Sundblom school of painting. He had the opportunity to learn from his mentor Jack Wittrup as well as from Nick Hufford, Bob Skemp, Al Kortner and Vic Livoti. The work done at The Illustrators Group was for prestigious clients such as Ford and Coca- Cola. Bob also worked for other art studios like Ross Art, Chate and Shaw-Barton Calendar House.

In 1969 Bob's friend Roger Kastel introduced him to Barbara Bertoli the Art Director at Avon Books and Bob began to paint paperback book covers mostly Regency romance, Ballantine, Harlequin, Fawcett, Ace among others..