[1] Son of a draftsman architect, Robert Maguire began his education at Duke University, but like so many others of his generation, left for service in World War II, fighting with the 88th infantry in Italy.
Two of Maguire's more noteworthy fellows were Clark Hulings and James Bama,[2] graduates all of the class of '49.
[1] Maguire's career took off immediately with his first work for Trojan Publications: cover art for their line of small pocket pulps, with titles like Hollywood Detective Magazine (Oct. 1950).
Maguire's mastery of the "femme fatale" created a vintage paperback icon: his women are passionate yet somehow down to earth, approachable, though sometimes at your own risk.
Maguire's over 1,200 covers for such publishers as Pocket, Dell, Ace, Harper, Avon, Silhouette, Ballantine, Pyramid, Bantam, Lion, Berkley, Beacon, Monarch and Signet - virtually every mainstream publishing house in New York - makes his original cover art a tour de force in the last half of the twentieth century.