Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Rafael D. Palacios (1905-1993) was a prolific and highly successful free-lance artist and illustrator specializing in book jackets and maps for major U.S. publishers in the mid- and late 20th century. Among his notable maps are those in most of Isaac Asimov''s history books and in Bruce Catton''s Civil War books.Of Spanish-Puerto Rican parentage, Palacios was born in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. When he was five months old his family moved to Puerto Rico. He was educated in the Puerto Rican schools, but as an artist was largely self-taught. In 1928 he did his first fine arts sketches while in San Juan. He made something of a specialty of Afro-Caribbean portraiture. He made a brief visit to the United States in 1931.