Product Description

A comprehensive reference covering over 140 years and 650 artists from the Civil War through the entire 20th century, The Illustrator in America includes a biographical sketch on each artist along with a time-line chart that provides the various influences of styles and schools needed to understand the artists and their work. First published in 1964 and revised in 1984, this third edition is now offered in paperback for the first time. Included in this incredible compendium are the works of Winslow Homer, Norman Rockwell, Jessie Wilcox Smith, J.C. Leyendecker, Milton Glase, Chris Van Allsberg and many more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #699366 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-01
• Released on: 2003-07-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From Library Journal
Historian and illustrator Reed here expands the time frame of two previous editions of The Illustrator in America, reaching back to 1860 and forward to the present. His previous editions included the periods from 1900 to the 1960s (the first edition, published in 1966) and 1880 to 1980 (the second edition, published in 1984). His son, art curator and writer Roger Reed, served as coauthor of the second edition and editor of this new edition. A side-by-side comparison of the three editions shows significant differences, so libraries holding the previous two will want this as a supplement. The selected "outstanding" artists have increased to almost 650, and the single examples of each previous artist's work are different. In addition, more reproductions are in color, and contemporary digital developments bring it up to date. Two aspects keep the work from being as useful to researchers as it could be: the pictures are generally presented without the text they would have originally illustrated, thus losing their graphic context. Also, the bibliography is a very general one the artist entries do not have individual bibliographies. Recommended for the ready-reference areas of public and academic libraries. Anne Marie Lane, Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This is the third edition of this standard art reference work, and coverage has been expanded and enhanced. The first edition (1964) covered 1900 to 1960; the second (1984) covered a century, 1880 to 1980. This version goes back to the Civil War and continues into the twenty-first century. The basic format remains the same. The history of American illustration is outlined decade by decade through a series of biographical essays on noteworthy artists accompanied by representative illustrations. The essays range in length from a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages. The author packs a great deal of information into the brief entries: training, influences, life circumstances, career highlights, notable works, and lasting contributions or influences to the field. The illustrations have been well chosen and are crisply reproduced in a full-color process. One innovation in this latest offering is that now all of the reproductions are in color. As a result, almost all artists are represented by works new to this edition.

Entries chronicle the achievements of more than 450 artists, among them printmakers Currier and Ives; caricaturist Al Hirschfeld; Kewpie creator Rose O'Neill; graphic novelist Art Spiegelman; book illustrator Chris Van Allsberg; and Alberto Vargas, known for his pinup girls. A time line provides an overview of major artistic influences. A selected bibliography of print sources and an index of artists complete the work. There are no sources cited for individual entries because, as explained in the introduction, "the information is an amalgam from many sources," including questionnaires, reference works, and periodicals.

This new edition will be welcomed by collections that support an art curriculum. Those libraries that own the first two editions will want to update because of the expanded chronological coverage, the use of color throughout, the introduction of new art reproductions, and the addition of new artists to every decade. The vivid illustrations and historical arrangement make for delightful browsing. Recommended for secondary, academic, and public libraries. REVWR
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Walt Reed was trained as an illustrator at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and the Phoenix Art Institute in New York City. He was a book illustrator prior to joining the instruction staff of the Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut. Reed has written a number of award-winning books on the subject of illustration. He founded Illustration House, Inc., a gallery specializing in the field of illustration and dedicated to the preservation of this vital form of American art.

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Selection of Great Illustrations
Note: I made some immature reader angry over my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews almost as fast as I post them.

A short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a good book.

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks

I'm not an art critic, but I love this book. There are several illustrations that I return to again and again. Here are a few of them:

"Leaving Southfield," by Ben Prins. It shows a cop giving a man a ticket next to a sign that reads, "Southfield, the Friendly City."

The cover illustration for "The American Weekly," 1951, by E. Everett Henry. It shows some children playing by the road on a beautiful fall day. Highly evocative of idealized Americana.

The Coca-Cola advertising illustration, 1922, by Irving Nurick. It shows a young woman sitting in a hammock at night. Intriguing.

"The Art Director," by Robert Fawcett, 1951. This funny illustration shows a cynical-faced boss looking at a painting done by a company employee. He's not impressed.

There are too many great illustrations to list, but I'll note one final illustration as one of my favorites. It's James Bingham's illustration of the Perry Mason story for the Saturday Evening Post, 1958. It shows a man in a trench coat at the top of a curved set of stairs. He's saying good night to a woman. The purples, blues, and yellows are super.

If you like black-and-white illustrations, check out "A Celebration of Humanism and Freethought," by David Allen Williams. It's full of rare 19th century engravings opposite selections of poetry and prose. Even non-humanists will enjoy this book (One shows a preacher pointing to a Bible as he argues with an angel from God. Another shows a man beating a winged horse).

See: A Celebration of Humanism and Freethought

A great book to lose yourself in
In music, I've always preferred chamber music, a woodwind quintet, over a full-blown symphony orchestra. Similarly, ever since high school I've been fascinated by book and magazine illustration over Rembrandt and Picasso. I've built up quite a collection of illustrated books and magazines, plus covers and jackets, ranging from Leyendecker and Rockwell to Frazetta and the Hildebrandts. This volume is less a history of American illustration than an encyclopedic catalog of some 650 of its practitioners, from the HARPER'S WEEKLY "special artists" of the Civil War period to modern artists of science fiction paperback covers. There's a brief bio sketch for each with an example or two of their work, organized by decade -- though placement within a decade is somewhat arbitrary for those with lengthy careers. All my old favorites are here, like John Held (I used to work with his grandson), Gordon Hope Grant, Hannes Bok, N. C. Wyeth, Winsor McCay, Donald Teague, Floyd Davis, and many, many others. I also discovered many artists whose work I had seen but whom I knew nothing about. Besides being a first-rate reference book, this is a great time-sink, and it will have a permanent place on my art shelf -- if I can every bring myself to put it down.

Great Art, little organizational forethought
If you are an artist, illustrator, or simply love fine figurative art, this book is a must-buy. Most of the greatest illustrators are represented here. As a painter, illustrator, I especially revere the works of the Brandywine artists and those from the 1920's thru the 1960's. The colors are terrific and the vast array of illustrators is wonderfull. I have always felt that commercial illustrators were better trained and more disiciplined therefore more competent and confident in experimenting with style and media than those trained in the fine arts. However, as great as the images were in The Illustrator in America, for those who seek a bit more,especially those who paint, several things are lacking: Editorial content-the tag line that always accompanies book or magazine illustration which explains the event captured in paint, would be so helpful to have, and as a painter to me knowing the size and media of eaach piece is invaluable and instructive. I own the last two issues but I hope the authors do a bit more research and give us the above information, as well as a bibliography because in case we want to buy old magazines for the larger full-size reproductions, having the year and month or issue number would be extremely helpful.