DAVID BLOSSOM'S Louis L'Amour Cover

My father had a friend who was Cherokee. The man loved to read and watch Westerns; a passion they shared. After he passed, his widow called dad and asked if he'd like to have a box of Louis L'Amour paperbacks. Dad is never one to jump to a "yes", so I said it for him. He frowned at me, but enjoyed reading all of the books.

I'll be featuring some of the covers. They date mainly back to the 1970s.

This cover was done, I believe, by David J. Blossom (1927-1995), son of Earl Blossom (1891-1970).

He was born in Chicago, Illinois but lived most of his life on the east coast, growing up in Rye, New York and Weston, Connecticut. He lived in Westport and Southport, Connecticut until 1963, when he moved with his family to Weston, where he lived until his death in 1995. 



He worked at Young & Rubicam as an art director (for the Ford Motor Company and Pan American Airways accounts) until moving to Weston, CT when he became a freelance illustrator. (SOURCE: AskArt)

He was known for illustrating Romance and Western covers.



Click here and here to see examples of Romance book covers; specifically nurses. And click here to see other examples of this cover as movie tie-in paperbacks.

"Ken feared she was...MODERN"

I've never been able to get through the stories in vintage magazines from the 1930s. Often they're like some of the bad movies from the time where women who were "modern" frightened men. Sooner or later they'd be tied down, roped at the ankles, branded, and trotted down the aisle.

This illustration, done by John Henry Crosman (1898-1970), was for a story entitled The Amateur Husband by Leona Dalrymple. You can go to Project Gutenberg to read some of her work. In the meantime, just a morsel of what awaited the reader of this "modern" woman.

Kenneth Mallory, on the eve of his marriage to old Dr. Pennington’s granddaughter, was likely to keep it. This was the opinion of his employers, who were successful metropolitan architects. Young Mr. Mallory, it was conceded, had ideas and foresight.

Ken met Mary Pennington at a summer log cabin on a still, blue lake. The cabin belonged to his cousin, Hugh Mallory, and Ken arrived for the week-en on the 2:56, Saturday afternoon. Eventually, in spotless flannels, he went out to look at the late.

The lake, ten feet from Hugh’s dock, had lost all of its stillness. It was supporting a brilliant scarlet cap, a wet, tanned gypsy face with healthy scarlet lips and cheeks and a pair of brown eyes which examined with interest Mr. Mallory’s clean-cut darkness and intelligent blue eyes.

Click image to see it larger. (SOURCE: Collier's, October 8, 1932)

The caption next to Kenneth's leg reads:

What emerged staggered Mallory. There was very little suit, a great deal of smooth, graceful tan…. Ken feared she was modern.

Miss Dalyrmple herself seems to be very much the "modern" woman with enough spitfire to put people in their place if you read this article from the March 9, 1914 New York Times.

PRUETT CARTER lead me to a dead end

These illustrations, from the October, 1936 The American Magazine, were done by Pruett Alexander Carter who was born on February 9, 1891 in Lexington, Missouri and died in Los Angeles, Calfornia in 1955. They were used to illustrate a story entitled Crossroads by Kathleen Norris.


Click on image to see it larger.

He was known for doing illustrations for women’s magazines, working in mainly oil and gouache. He was also a teacher at Grand Central School of Art in New York and Chouinard Art Institute in California.


Click on image to see it larger.

I've found little else about his life other than:

He reportedly moved to California from his place of work in New York after visiting there in 1930, and worked on his art commissions through the telephone and submitted them by air express. It is stated that Carter produces oil paintings on canvas in his well-organized home and outside studios and draws inspiration from the painters Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet. (SOURCE: American Artist)

His death, however, is another matter. On December 1, 1955 in Van Nuys, California, Pruett Carter, age 64, shot and killed his wife, son, and then himself. From Find a Grave:

Illustrator Kills Wife, Son, Self
Van Nuys, California, Dec. 2. - (INS) - Police were unable today to fix a definite motive today for the tragedy in which illustrator Pruett Carter, 64, killed his wife and son and then ended his own life. Investigators assumed that Carter was despondent over ill health in the family. However, he left no notes. His wife, Mrs. Teresa Carter, 50, whom the artist married in Atlanta in 1920, and the son, Deal, 35, a cripple, had been shot as they slept. The elder Carter was slumped in death beside his son's bed. A revolver was near his outstretched hand.

To see more of Carter’s work click here, here, and here. You may glean a few more details about his professional life here.

Again, I never know where an old piece of paper will lead me.

AN OYSTER A DAY is all they ask

I can definitely say that I will never ever slurp an oyster out of a shell. In fact, I may be so bold as to say I will never eat an oyster no matter how it is prepared. I know I am not alone with this thought.

Then there's the Oyster Institute of North America. Or perhaps I should say there WAS the Oyster Institute of North America. I cannot find any information indicating this group still exists. I'm sure, somewhere in the halls of Congress there is a lobbyist knocking on doors carrying a bucket of slurpy oysters hoping to entice some representative into writing a bill that leans towards oysters and oyster farmers. And so it goes.

This vintage magazine ad for oysters is from the October, 1936, The American Magazine. Has anyone seen any oyster ads lately?

The illustrator was Don Hearld. I cannot find any biographical information about him, but then after one post in an old book I decided I didn't care to know anything about him. He was apparently the author of some humor books available here and here. His one main claim to fame seems to be this image of Santa.

If you're a researcher interested in the Oyster Institute and find yourself at the Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea you might want to check out the archives of Howard W. Beach who was the president of the Oyster Institute of North America, and the Oyster Growers and Dealers Association of North America. He apparently kept a series of scrapbook dating from 1905 to 1941.

BEECH-NUT GUM is good for your nerves

Unlike Double Mint gum, which claims to make you beautiful, Beech-Nut goes with calming your nerves as their claim to fame.

Now, I always thought riding in a rumble seat would be fun, but Beech-Nut has now given me a different perspective. And frankly, from the looks on the faces of these two I'm guessing chewing gum is the farthest thing from their minds. I think the fellow might have just swallowed his gum.

Click on image to see it larger. (SOURCE: The American Magazine, October, 1936)

Beech-Nut baby food was the only baby food I would eat. Finicky from the beginning.

Beech-Nut's roots go back to 1891, to the Mohawk Valley town of Canajoharie, New York. Raymond P. Lipe, along with his friend John D. Zieley and their brothers, Walter H. Lipe and David Zieley, and Bartlett Arkell, founded The Imperial Packing Co. with the production of Beech-Nut ham. The product was based on the smoked hams of Raymond and Walter's father, farmer Ephraim Lipe. The company's principal products were ham and bacon for the first seven years. David and John Zieley sold their shares to the Lipe brothers in 1892.

The company was incorporated as the Beech-Nut Packing Company in 1899. In 1900, the company's sales were $200,000. Engineers from Beech-Nut patented the first vacuum jar with a design that included a gasket and top that could remain intact in transit and became a standard of the industry.

During the first 25 years of the 20th century, the company expanded its product line into peanut butter, jam, pork and beans, ketchup, chili sauce, mustard, spaghetti, macaroni, marmalade, caramel, fruit drops, mints, chewing gum, and coffee. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

The illustrator of this ad was Willaim Meade Prince (1893-1951). His archives are at the University of North Carolina where the following appears:

William Prince, born in Roanoke, Va., and raised in Chapel Hill, N.C., was a successful magazine illustrator in the 1920s and 1930s. He was head of the Art Department at the University of North Carolina during World War II and produced drawings and posters in aid of the war effort.

The Southern Part of Heaven, his boyhood memoir, was published in 1950.

Actress Lillian Hughes Prince, William's wife, appeared in many stage productions in and around Chapel Hill, particularly with the Carolina Playmakers. She also played Queen Elizabeth in Paul Green's The Lost Colony, 1947-1953, and acted with the touring company of Howard Richardson's Dark of the Moon, 1945-1946. The couple had one adopted daughter Caroline, who returned to her birth parents in 1941.

The bulk of the collection is correspondence, mostly between the Princes, much of it during their courtship. Also included are professional letters relating to William Prince's career as an illustrator and writer and to Lillian Prince's stage career; journals and diaries of both Princes; drafts of two unfinished books by William Prince; collected material, including a scrapbook about The Southern Part of Heaven and three scrapbooks about Lillian Prince's stage career; financial material; and photographs of family members and friends, stage productions, and William Prince's book and magazine illustrations. There is also a small group of materials relating to the purchase of land by the Order of Gimghoul at the University of North Carolina in the 1910s.

The Addition of 2004 contains photographs, correspondence, and other papers. Photographs are primarily of William Meade Prince and Lillian Hughes Prince; they include photographs of the Princes with their adopted daughter, Caroline. There are also letters from William Meade Prince to Lillian Hughes Prince written during their courtship, letters to the Princes from Caroline, and other items. (SOURCE: UNC)

To read more about Prince and see more of his work visit the following links at Today's Inspiration: here, here, here, and here. To see more of his work visit Google images here.

"Skippack School" by MARGUERITE de ANGELI

Years ago my mother purchased this book at the Green Dragon Market in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Our family history goes back several hundred years in Pennsylvania so she thought this would be a book I’d enjoy. She paid 50 cents for it.

Skippack School was published in 1939 by Random House. Written and illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli, she’s all but forgotten now. Hopefully this post will introduce her to those not familiar with her work. The book has many more illustrations than the few shown here.

The following is from Wikipedia, where you can find a list of her other work.

Marguerite de Angeli (March 14, 1889 – June 16, 1987) was a bestselling author and illustrator of children's books including the 1950 Newbery Award winning book The Door in the Wall. She wrote and illustrated twenty-eight of her own books, and illustrated more than three dozen books and numerous magazine stories and articles for other authors.

Themes   Her work explored and depicted the traditions and rich cultural diversity of common people more frequently overlooked – a semi-autobiographical Great Depression family, African American children experiencing the sting of racial prejudice, Polish mine workers aspiring to life beyond the Pennsylvania coal mines, the physically handicapped, colonial Mennonites, the Amish, nineteenth-century Quakers supporting the underground railroad, immigrants, and other traditional or ethnic peoples. De Angeli's books carry an underlying message that we are really all the same, and that all of us deserve tolerance, care, consideration, and respect.

Awards   Her 1946 story Bright April was the first children’s book to address the divisive issue of racial prejudice. She was twice named a Caldecott Honor Book illustrator, first in 1945 for Yonie Wondernose and again in 1955 for Book of Nursery and Mother Goose Rhymes. She received a 1950 Newbery Medal, for The Door in the Wall, which also won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1961, a 1957 Newbery Honor mention for Black Fox of Lorne, a 1961 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and the 1968 Regina Medal.

Life   She was born Marguerite Lofft in Lapeer, Michigan, one of six children. Her father, George Shadrach Lofft, was a photographer and illustrator; her mother was Ruby Adele Tuttle Lofft. In 1902 her family moved to West Philadelphia, where she spent her most formative years. Marguerite entered high school in 1904, but a year later at age fifteen began to sing professionally as contralto in a Presbyterian choir for $1 a week. She soon withdrew from high school for more musical training.

In 1908 she met John Dailey de Angeli, a violinist, known as Dai. They were married in Toronto on 1910 April 12. The first of their six children, John Shadrach de Angeli, was born one year later. After living in many locations in the American and Canadian West, they settled in the Philadelphia suburb of Collingswood, New Jersey.

There in 1921 Marguerite started to study drawing under her mentor Maurice Bower. In 1922 Marguerite began illustrating a Sunday School paper and was soon doing illustrations for magazines such as The Country Gentleman, Ladies' Home Journal, and The American Girl, besides illustrating books for authors including Helen Ferris, Elsie Singmaster, Cornelia Meigs, and Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

Her last child, Maurice Bower de Angeli, was born in 1928, seven years before the 1935 publication of her first book, Ted and Nina Go to the Grocery Store. The de Angeli family moved frequently, returning to Pennsylvania and living north of Philadelphia in Jenkintown, west of Philadelphia in the Manoa neighborhood of Havertown, on Carpenter Lane in Germantown, Philadelphia, on Panama Street in Center City, Philadelphia, in an apartment near the Philadelphia Art Museum, and in a cottage in Red Hill, Pennsylvania. They also maintained a summer cabin in Tom's River, New Jersey. Marguerite's husband died in 1969 only eight months before their 60th wedding anniversary. In 1971, two years after her husband died, she published her autobiography, Butter at the Old Price. Her last work, Friendship and Other Poems, was published in 1981 when she was 92 years old. She died at the age of 98 on June 16, 1987 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Works   In her illustrations Marguerite de Angeli employed a number of different media, including charcoal, pen and ink, lithograph (only in earliest work), oils, and watercolors. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the regional setting of many, but not all, of her books. (SOURCE: Wikipedia; Photo from Ann Arbor District Library)

Click on any image to see it larger.

Thank goodness there were NO STOCK PHOTO AGENCIES in 1934

An ad from the 1934 May Delineator.


Click on image to see it larger.

Let us give thanks that at one time there were no stock photo agencies. Sadly there is no information given as to who the illustrator was, which doesn't mean I didn't do a search. Alas, I found nothing.

As if the illustration of the woman wasn't lovely enough, take a look at the cereal image. Stunning.


Click on image to see it larger.

FRED A. MAYER, silhouette artist

Little can be found online about Fred A. Mayer. The only biographical information I found is that he was born in 1904. There are a few books available that he illustrated. Other than that, he's almost unknown.

This article, from the 1940 Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Reviewprovides a little bit about the artist.




Click on either image to see it larger.
(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

The art of the silhouette does not have the power it once had, but it's still used today in ways you probably don't even notice. You know that deer crossing sign you see? Silhouette art. Men or women signs for bathrooms...silhouette art. To read a little about the history of silhouette art click here.

GLUYAS WILLIAMS is back

If you’ve spent some time here the past few years you might remember illustrator Gluyas Williams. Gluyas was the illustrator of some wonderfully odd Log Cabin Syrup ads here and here. He also did an ad for a Belden rubber plug and a nice illustration for a Cosmopolitan magazine in 1929.

Well, I'm happy to say I've found more Gluyas, including a recently purchased Robert Benchley book from 1949. I intended to eventually post the illustrations from the book, but hadn't gotten around to scanning them. And then I saw this...

Click on image to see it larger.
(SOURCE: Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus Magazine and Daily Review, 1940)

Add Bissell Sweepers to the Gluyas list. The style is so distinct, but the illustration shows neither his full name signature nor his abbreviated "GW." So I have to wonder, if this is a Gluyas knockoff or a real one. I may have solved the "mystery" by finding this online, a Bissell ad from 1935 clearly showing the Gluyas signature. But for me the mystery still remains. No signature, no proof. Faux Gluyas? I'll let the Gluyas experts deal with this.

In the meantime, here is an ad for Texaco done by Gluyas.

And here's the title page from the Peter Benchley book Chips Off the Old Benchley.

Gluyas Williams (July 23, 1888 – February 13, 1982) was an American cartoonist, notable for his contributions to The New Yorker and other major magazines.

Born in San Francisco, California, he graduated from Harvard in 1911. In college, he was a member of the Harvard Lampoon.

His cartoons employed a clean black-and-white style and often dealt with prevailing themes of the day such as Prohibition. His work appeared in Life, Collier's, Century and The New Yorker. He was also syndicated to such newspapers as The Plain Dealer. According to his obituary in The New York Times (15 April 1982, p. D7), by the time he retired in 1953, about five million regular readers had seen his cartoons, which ran in more than 70 newspapers.

During the 1940s, he worked in Boston at 194 Boylston Street. When he died at the age of 93, he was living in Newton, Massachusetts.

ReprintsPublished collections of his work include The Gluyas Williams Book (1929), Fellow Citizens (1940) and The Gluyas Williams Gallery (1957). He also illustrated books by Robert Benchley and Father of the Bride by Edward Streeter. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

To read more about Gluyas Williams visit the following sites:

www.gluyaswilliams.com
infoplease
filboidstudge
Google images

For something completely different...Ruth, from Artifact Collectors, asked me to do a guest post on my corner of the universe. I blather on about what I do giving others outside my small realm the chance to be bored by me. Thank you Ruth. It was a pleasure. And folks, visit the site, www.artifactcollectors.com, to actually read some posts by people who actually know what they're talking about. 

Celebrating LIBERTY

This image by William Balfour-Ker is from the July 1918 Delineator magazine.



We were at war on July 4, 1918. Now, 94 years later we're still at war with people on the other side of the globe. It never ends and probably never will.

Liberty seems so logical to most of us, but it's not a universal language. It's too often fighting religion, greed, and political dominance. We're really always on the tipping point. So try to not go shopping for sales to celebrate the founding of this country or wave a flag mindlessly without really thinking about what it means. Don't be a good consumer. Be a good American which means respect people, stop listening to those who yell the loudest, and don't follow every fool who claims liberty is simple if you just think like they do.

As to the illustrator, an avowed Socialist, which means he dreamt of liberty for all, not just the few:

William Balfour Ker was born in Dunville, Ontario, Canada on July 25, 1877 of Scottish heritage. His mother, Lily Florence Bell, was a first cousin of Alexander Graham Bell. The Ker family immigrated to the U.S. in 1880. His early education and training are unknown. As a young man, Ker was an avowed Socialist, his art often reflecting his political beliefs. In the 1890's, he became a naturalized citizen and a student of the great illustrator Howard Pyle.

During this time he met a fellow student of Pyle's, Mary Ellen Sigsbee, daughter of Charles D. Sigsbee, captain of the USS Maine [Spanish-American War]. Politically, Mary Ellen was as far to the left as he was to the right. She and Ker fell in love, and despite her father's vigorous objections, the couple eloped in 1898. After their marriage they lived in Greenwich Village, where they worked out of a small art studio. A son, David, was born in 1906. The following year, they packed up their infant son and went to Paris to paint.

Ker's style was influenced by other Social Realists of the time, particularly Diego Rivera, who was in Paris at the same time. By the time they returned to New York a couple of years later, the marriage was failing, ending in divorce in 1910. Ker married model Josephine Phillips, with whom he had one daughter and three sons. The daughter, Yosene Ker, grew up to marry Lathrop Weld and bore him three children. The youngest was Susan Ker Weld, known to moviegoers as Tuesday Weld. The teen idol of the 1950s and '60s is the granddaughter of William Balfour Ker and Josephine Phillips. (SOURCE: Fine Old Art)  

ROSE O'NEILL didn't just draw Kewpie dolls

Raise your hand if you ever had a Kewpie, know of anyone that had a Kewpie, or if you don't know what I'm talking about. How about a Kewpie on a stick? I had one of those. A celluloid Kewpie on a lightweight cane with feathers attached to the handle. I think I got it on the boardwalk at either Ocean City or Atlantic City. Never came out of storage. Long gone.

If you're new to Kewpies I'll give you a brief bit of info. Rose O'Neill invented the Kewpies around 1908-1909 following a divorce.

Disappointed and melancholy, she returned to Bonniebrook once more. It was here that the plump little elf-like creatures called Kewpies came to her, literally. She claims that they appeared to her in a dream and when she awoke, they were all over her room. In actuality, she had been drawing little cupids as headpieces and tailpieces for her magazine work. In 1909, Edward Bok suggested to her that she do a series of drawings featuring the little creatures as the main character. They were inspired by her baby brother and Cupid, the god of love, “but there is a difference,” she said. “Cupid gets himself into trouble. The Kewpies get themselves out, always searching out ways to make the world better and funnier.” They made their first public appearance in Woman’s Home Companion in December of 1909. They were immediately popular and quickly became a large merchandising industry. (SOURCE: Women's Children Book Illustrators)

O'Neill had an interesting and rather heartbreaking life which you can read about at the site listed as a source above, Women's Children Book Illustrators and at the official Rose O'Neill site.

Well, you'll be relieved to find out I'm not sharing anything to do with Kewpies today. Instead I'm giving you some lovely illustrations I found in a 1929 Cosmopolitan magazine. Four illustrations done by O'Neill for a retelling of Beauty and the Beast by John Erskine. I think these are a real find!

Click on any image to see it larger.

No Log Cabin in site for new GLUYAS WILLIAMS

Hold your breath ladies and gents. I present a full two page spread of Gluyas Williams with no advertising attached. This is just pure Gluyas.

Do click on the image to see it larger. There's a lot going on here.

SOURCE: May 1929 Cosmopolitan

To see previous posts about Gluyas, well...okay, they weren't always about Gluyas. They were usually about Log Cabin Syrup, but the posts wouldn't have happened without Gluyas. Click here, here, here, here, and here for more Gluyas. There's probably more, but hey, enjoy the hunt.

Charles A. MacLellan

Sometimes I just don't find anything. Put a name into a search and nothing much shows up. So okay, this is going to save me time. I'll just post this image to share and move on with what's left of my day and the real work I need to be doing.

Click on image to see it larger.

The cover is self-explanatory. Delineator, February 1915. I thought it appropriate for all the kids who stayed home today because of a snow day. It also reminds me of the scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie beats up the neighborhood bully.

I'm not finding biographical information about the artist, Charles Archibald MacLellan, other than he was born in 1885 in Trenton, Ontario, Canada. He lived in Delaware and was known for doing illustrations of children. His teacher was Howard Pyle. He exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and was apparently a student at the Brandywine School and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is known for his cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post and he worked in oil paints. That's it folks. No death notice, but I'm figuring we can gather from his date of birth he's no longer here. If I ever find anything else I'll update this post.

To see examples of his Post covers click here and here.

That's it for today's Tattered and lost Ephemera break.

_______

UPDATE: On November 30, 2010 I received the following biographical information about Charles A. MacLellan from his niece:

Uncle Charlie lived in a studio apartment in Wilmington, DE for many years. I believe it is now headquarters for some sort of an artists' group. Perhaps the address is 1305 Franklin Street. About 15 years ago I sent the artists' group a post card (or letter) from Howard Pyle indicating agreement to rent the place to Uncle Charlie.

Uncle Charlie died in October 1961 and a service was held at a local Presbyterian Church. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered by several ladies in the artists' organization.

My two sisters and I were his heirs. My mother, Marjorie MacLellan Dawson, was executor of his will.

He was a very, very funny man - very proper and irreverent at the same time.

Thank you! I love finding out more about the man who did this wonderful painting.

_______

UPDATE: on August 27, 2011 I received the following information in a comment from Ian Schoenherr said...

You can see some c.1911 photos of MacLellan taken in Howard Pyle’s studio in the Olive Rush Papers at the Archives of American Art. 





He appears in photos 17 (on the left), 19 (on the right), and 20 (on the left).

Thank you Ian!

UPDATE: The following biographical information was submitted anonymously to the comments section. Whoever sent it along, thank you.

Charles Archibald MacLellan, known as “Mac”, was born in Canada in 1885. He attended Chicago’s Art Institute School for about two and a half years before accepting a position at an engraving house. 

While in Chicago, MacLellan illustrated several magazine covers, designed stained glass windows, created advertisement posters, and did newspaper sketches for the Chicago Examiner.

In 1909, he relocated to Wilmington, Delaware, where her studied with legendary illustrator Howard Pyle. At that time, MacLellan began painting calendars and established a highly successful illustration career that lasted through the first half of the twentieth century.

MacLellan is best known for his cover paintings for The Saturday Evening Post. Between 1913 and 1936, he painted forty-four covers, making him one of the most prolific Post cover illustrators of his day. MacLellan specialized in painting women, and nearly all of his cover illustrations feature a woman as the central, and often only, subject.

By the late 1930s he turned to portrait painting and also spent more time acquiring antique furniture on behalf of the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.
MacLellan taught at the Studio, in Howard Pyle’s old studio in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1943 until his death in 1961.

Henry Patrick Raleigh

Again, from the same copy of The Saturday Evening Post (April 13, 1934) I give you two illustrations by Henry Raleigh. I love the line work. You see the structure being built. The quickness of it, the movement. Really nice drawings.

Click on two images below to see them larger.

These drawings were used to illustrate a story by E. Phillips Oppenheim (October 22, 1866-February 3, 1946) called "The Strange Boarders of Palace Crescent." The first few lines:

"The first thing which struck Roger Ferrison as odd about Mrs. Dewar's apparently respectable Palace Crescent boarding house was the elderly manservant's insistence that all the boarders hand up their keys when they retired. Yet at two A.M., after everyone had ostensibly gone to bed, five keys were missing—their owners obviously abroad in the London night."

Oppenheim was an English novelist known for writing thrillers. From Wikipedia:

Much of Oppenheim's work possesses a unique escapist charm, featuring protagonists who delight in Epicurean meals, surroundings of intense luxury, and the relaxed pursuit of criminal practice, on either side of the law.

As to Henry Raleigh. He was born into poverty in 1880 in Portland, Oregon and committed suicide "...jumping from the window of a sleazy hotel in Times Square in 1944." You can read an interesting piece written by Raleigh's granddaughter, Nora Raleigh, by clicking on the link above.

The following is from an old book on my shelf, Advertising in America: The First 200 years, published in 1990 by Abrams.

Raleigh was known as the illustrator of sophisticated, high society fashion–he did all the stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and the like—in the Saturday Evening Post. When he designed ads, he carried with him the patina of Manhattan and Hollywood and gave the product a tacit endorsement. He did Maxwell House ads for nearly forty years always identifiable by his ink-sketch style overlaid with colored washes. (SOURCE: Advertising in America: The First 200 Years, Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple,Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1990)

And the following is from Ask Art.com:

Etcher, illustrator, lithographer, painter. Born in Portland, OR on Sept. 23, 1880. "Harry" Raleigh moved to San Francisco with his family in 1888. After studying at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute during 1896-1901, he took his first job as a sketch artist for the San Francisco Examiner. While there, William Randolph Hearst noticed his talent and encouraged him to move to NYC which he did in 1913. There he continued newspaper work for the World while illustrating for Harper's Bazaar and The Saturday Evening Post. (SOURCE: AskArt.com)

Here are several pieces shown at AskArt.com.

Raleigh also illustrated several posters during World War I.

(SOURCE: University of South Carolina Library)

(SOURCE: Documenting the American South)

(SOURCE: Documenting the American South)

To read a well written piece about Raleigh with examples and a discussion of his work click Illustration Art.

And here is a lithograph done by Raleigh.

Three Figures on a Park Bench --- 1919, Lithograph.

Edition not stated. Signed in the stone, lower right. Inscribed To Chas. Prulets - Henry Raleigh 1933 in pencil. Image size 7 3/4 x 10 inches (197 x 254 mm); sheet size 10 7/16 x 13 5/16 inches (265 x 338 mm). A fine, rich impression, on cream Japan, with full margins (3/4 to 1 1/4 inches). Pale glue stains on the sheet edges recto, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition.

$550. (SOURCE: Keith Sheridan)

Again, if in time I discover more of Raleigh's work in my ephemera I will post it.

DAVID PALLADINI

When I was in college I began to earnestly collect children's books and works illustrated by David Palladini were some of the first. I know he still works as an illustrator, but I haven't seen anything new in a long time, so it was fun to find this brochure from 1970 at the flea market. 

The brochure was published by Eaton Laboratories, Division of the Norwich Pharmacal Company. They put out a series of, as they called them, "vignettes based on 'Troubled Waters,' a manuscript of the late Benjamin S. Abeshouse, M. D., a practicing urologist whose lifetime avocaton was the collection of historical data dealing with the influence of genitourinary disease in the lives of famous men and women." 

This particular piece is about Henry VIII. I thought it appropriate since "The Tudors" begins its third season tonight on Showtime. Below are the pages of illustrations. For any Palladini fan this is a nice little find.

And for a moment of levity I present in honor of Henry the following which has a good beat and it's easy to dance to.