Edward Melcarth (born Edward Epstein in Louisville in 1914- died in Venice in 1973) Taught at the Art Students League in New York, designed some spiky bat-wing sunglasses for Peggy Guggenheim. With a team of assistants he was also responible for the trompe l'oeil murals in the Pierre Hotel, New York (1967). The FORTUNE commission was an early boost to his career and provided one of the most lively reportage features in the magazine as it surveyed the War.

see Boda, Jay, "Edward Melcarth: an essay on an enigma," The archive: the journal of the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation, no. 29 (winter 2009), p. 15-16. A large collection of his papers are in the Smithsonian.