1961, casein tempera on board, 39cm x 64cm

One of Johnson’s most sensuous and stylish compositions, and the earliest surviving work using casein paint was the cover for "A Crowd of Voices" the first full length novel by Richard Lortz, a highly regarded writer of short stories, novels, plays, and TV shows. His 1972 Broadway play 'Voices' was made into a film starring David Hemmings, Gayle Hunnicutt and Lynn Farleigh the following year. 

"A Crowd of Voices" was published by Four Square Books in the year it was acquired by Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles and re-branded as the National English Library (NEL), now a cult imprint of  1960s and 70s paperback pulp fiction.