THE COVER ART OF JOHN PISANI
This Man is Dangerous and Poison Ivy, two of the first Cheyney books published by Collins. Both have John Pisani jackets and they defined the readers’ image for both the male and female Cheyney architypes.

The row of illustrations below are by Vittorio Pisani from Italy, dating from the 1930s & early 40s. Clearly the style is similar to John Pisani and it can be assumed that they were brothers. Vittorio’s illustrations are in an heroic reportage style and there is a large selection of his work at http://editorial.acionline.biz/ (type “Pisani” in the search box). There seems to be no information available on John Pisani other than the text below, if you have any knowledge of either John or Vittorio please contact us: email

Michael Harrison, in his 1954 biography of Peter Cheyney, dedicates a complete (if short) chapter to the author’s pre-war working relationship with John Pisani. The rest of the text on this page is from that chapter...

Cheyney the Art-Patron
Cheyney managed to persuade Collins to accept his choice of illustrator for his first novel [This Man is Dangerous, 1936], and so Mr. John Pisani’s tough-looking ‘G-man’, with his slouch hat pulled well down over his eyes, his (strangely) single-breasted trench-coat showing signs of wear and tear – in such striking contrast to the obvious brand-newness of the cradled Tommy-gun – created the type of Lemmy Caution for – eventually – hundreds and thousands of readers.

Mr. Pisani’s drawing is most commendable, for though the man with the gun looks tough enough to be capable of any ruthlessness, his features are such that, after the reader has discovered that he is, in fact, a ‘good’ man (i.e. a legally authorised thug), the satisfied reader may turn back to the picture and recognise the ‘goodness’ in Lemmy’s lined and ruggedly handsome face.
Pisani did a few rough sketches [of women], but failed, in Cheyney’s phrase, to ‘hit the jack-pot’...

At the time Pisani was employing a model named Ruth, whose dark hair and slim figure – especially in the nude – was calculated to have charms obvious enough for even a man untrained in the pictorial art.

Wandering around Pisani’s studio, while the artist tried vainly to catch Cheyney’s indescribable ideas on paper, Peter picked up some of the full-length drawings of Ruth.

‘Hold everything!’ he shouted, walking rapidly across the studio, waving the large coloured drawing above his head. ‘Who’s this...? Is it commissioned?’ Pisani said no. ‘This is it, then! Can you put some clothes on her? But not too many....’

Pisani took a carbon pencil and deftly laid the thinest of draperies over the provocative curves of Ruth’s slederly tall body.

... Pisani was left with strict instructions to prepare a large coloured drawing of two Ruths – one with fair hair and one with dark. Cheyney carefully explained that he did not wish Pisani to ‘mess about’ in finding another model: he wanted every woman that Pisani drew to be Ruth.

As a pictorial compliment to the smart, slick ‘sophisticated’ tales that Chyeney was to make a fortune in telling, nothing better could have been found than a polished Pisani drawing of one or more identical – and identically beautiful and elegant – girls.