Vintage Magazine Identifier
& Price Guide
by
Elaine & Richard Russell
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Sangraal Books
on Smashwords
Vintage Magazine Identifier & Price Guide
Copyright © 2005 by Richard Russell & Elaine Gross Russell
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following experts for their contributions and scholarship:
Andreas Deja, Senior Animator, for the Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios. Mr. Deja is an expert on illustrator T.S. Sullivant. He has also graciously shared his personal collection of T.S. Sullivant's art. His work can be seen in such Disney classics as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", "The Lion King" and "Lilo & Stitch". He is currently working on a new Bambi feature.
William Stout, an Animalier who specializes in Pre-Historic and Fantasy Art, is an expert on the work of illustrator Joseph Clement Coll. The fantastic worlds of William Stout can be seen at: www.williamstout.com.
Dr. Harry Poe, President of the Poe Museum in Richmond, for his scholarly advice. The Poe Museum is located at 1914 East Main Street, Richmond, VA 23223. The Museum website is at: www.poemuseum.org
W. Dale Horst for his entry on artist Frederick Stuart Church. Mr. Horst and his wife Rose Marie Horst have probably one of the most extensive collections of the illustration and print work
of Frederick Stuart Church.
Peter Leeflang of the Berton Braley Cyber Museum which is devoted to the works of Berton Braley. The web address is: www.bertonbraley.com
Susanne George Bloomfield, professor of English at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, is the author of three biography/collections of turn-of-the-century writers published by the University of Nebraska Press: The Adventures of The Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart (1993), Kate M. Cleary: A Literary Biography with Selected Works (1997), and Impertinences: Selected Writings of Elia W. Peattie, A Journalist in the Gilded Age (2005). For more information: www.unk.edu/acad/english/faculty/bloomfields.
Randall Stock has published in a number of Sherlockian periodicals including the Baker Street Journal. He has personally examined 7 of the 27 recorded copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887. His website with material on Beeton's and on Conan Doyle manuscripts is : http://members.aol.com/shbest
Karen Schwartz, a Reference Librarian in the Art Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia, for her guidance and help with the obscure and contradictory in the myriad world of vintage magazines.
Introductions
Elaine
I started selling magazines from the stock of a disgruntled bookseller. He wanted to toss them. I won.
My fascination began with several boxes of the Strand Magazine over 30 years ago. It wasn't just seeing the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes that got me hooked. Rather, it was seeing Victorian articles like "Muzzles for Women" and other satirical commentary that I found fascinating. There was a wonderful British bookseller, Gaby Goldsheider, who was an expert on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. About every six months, Gaby would issue a catalogue which included the Strand Magazine. I remember calling and waking her up in England in the middle of the night worried that the all the magazines had already been sold out of her catalogue.
The proliferation of the Internet has made collecting vintage magazines an instant worldwide phenomenon.
Nowadays, a great magazine is only a mouse-click away. Magazines are sold on-line by the novice clearing out their Grandmother's attic as well as the seasoned bookseller trying to make space in their store. There are very few stores per se that do specialize in vintage magazines , so one has to hunt creatively.
Antique Malls, flea markets, estate and yard sales all have magazines for sale. There are bargains to be had as well as rip-offs, especially on the various Internet venues. I have personally found that Antiquarian booksellers are the best source. Magazines are difficult to handle in a store even when wrapped in a plastic sleeve. Therefore, a bookseller is grateful to see them go out the door.
The secret of buying vintage magazines, however, is knowledge and research. The more I have learned, the easier it has been to spot a valuable magazine in the middle of a pile of old paper. If the writing of this book had occurred several years ago, I would have been rich from all of the great magazines I should have bought. (Although, admittedly a bookseller did simply give me a Godey’s with Poe’s “The Visionary” because he thought it was a worthless mess ). While there are several scholarly tomes on magazines in the local public library, there has been no comprehensive popular price guide to date. There are specific guides, especially on illustrators like Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish. But, for the most part material such as all-important issue dates can only be found in various author/illustrator bibliographies many of which are privately printed and certain specialty Internet Sites . Ultimately, the best source is the magazine itself since a lot of information available can be erroneous or incomplete. Even the various experts who have graciously shared their knowledge for this book have been surprised by some previously unknown magazine appearance . Therefore, I have only learned to trust the magazine and, most importantly, make sure it is a complete copy. Although, even an incomplete copy of the most expensive magazine in the world,
Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887 has sold for over $15,000. The last complete issue of it sold for $153,600. in fair condition, a fine copy today would be simply...priceless.
Now, if only some overcrowded bookseller would be kind enough to give me that issue ......................................
Rick
It was all about a pile in the warehouse that was seemingly alive. Every time I'd look, it seemed to have grown a bit. Seems as a bookseller, you can't help but acquire magazines. Quite wonderful, fragile, and, because they are often the first appearance of this, the first photo of that, and illustrated by ... well, you get the idea. They get piled, somehow mate inside the pile and pile keeps growing. Difficult to deal with in a store, almost impossible for a scout, but nonetheless, fascinating and wonderful and nothing to put in a dumpster.
Well, fortunately, Elaine took an interest in my pile and started studying up on the market. In magazines, this proves to be a rather expensive proposition, however. Unlike books, for which several basic guides, numerous books of collecting lore and advice that are pretty much available, vintage magazines have always lacked a simple popular guide. There are guides to artists, single titles, scholarly works that run to several volumes, but nothing basic, simple, in a nutshell. So, using my own book reference, Antique Trader Book Collector's Price Guide, as a guide, we set out to create a similar resource for vintage magazines. A dangerous little book actually. You could end up loving these little bits and pieces of disposable history, and that could become as obsessive and expensive as bibliomania. It has for us.
For those who may think that magazines are, somehow, below the scale of books as high ticket collectibles, I learned that on the weekend I finished up this book and started to pack it off to my editor a fair, and only fair, Beeton's Annual 1887 containing Study In Scarlet was auctioned at Sothebys for $153,600. The same sale also realized $63,000 for Lippincotts Magazine for Feb 1890 containing Conan Doyle's "Sign of the Four."
Collecting Magazines
Why Magazines are collected
The disposable nature of magazines makes them a rarity. How many Maxfield Parrish covers have lined the bottom of bird cages or lit a warm fireplace? Unlike a book, there are a multitude of reasons to collect a vintage magazine: writer, illustrator, and advertising.
For a lazy researcher,there is no controversy as to first edition. First appearances are in magazines from Edgar Allan Poe to Jack London to Agatha Christie.
Most first appearances of the works of great authors were published in magazines .Many of these writers were also Editors and Publishers. Charles Dickens wrote and published Household Words with writer/editor Wilkie Collins in the 1850’s. Edgar Allan Poe’s first appearance in a magazine of national circulation was the anonymous publication of “The Visionary” in Godey’s Lady’s Book in January 1834.Poe was also an Editor for Graham’s Magazine where his first American Detective story “The Murders In The Rue Morgue” was published in April 1841. Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven”, was published under the pseudonym of Quarles in The American Review: A Whig Journal in February 1845. Arguably, the world’s most popular detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, made his first appearance in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887 in Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study In Scarlet. However, it was the publication of “A Scandal in Bohemia” in The Strand Magazine in July of 1891 that made Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes a household name and boosted the circulation of the Strand. When Doyle “killed” off Holmes in “The Final Problem”, the Strand and Doyle were besieged with upset and outraged readers. Doyle was “forced” to create the “Return of Sherlock Holmes” in “The Empty House” and the rest is literary history.
Godey’s Lady’s Book was edited by Sarah J. Hale. Mrs. Hale was the original author of the poem “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” .She was one of the first women to actually make a living as a writer/editor. Godey’s was the fashion and household Bible for the American woman in the 1800‘s. Mrs. Hale was one of the earliest champions of Women’s Rights.. During the Civil War, it was one of the most sought after smuggling operations for the women in the South. They had to get their Godey’s fashions and recipes. Mrs. Hale brought Edgar Allan Poe to the American Public -- her son had known Poe at West Point. Each issue of Godey’s contained hand-colored fashions for women that were for the most part hand-tinted by women. The fashions were copied and then removed for framing. It is sometimes difficult to find an early issue of Godey’s with all of the illustrations intact. Today, however, they are still sought after for their content --whether it be writers such as Poe or Civil War Reenactment enthusiasts.
At the turn-of-the-century, American magazines-especially the Hearst owned Cosmopolitan attracted not only authors such as Jack London, but began to feature important illustrators on their covers. Hearst paid well, therefore, he got the best. Artists such as Harrison Fisher illustrated Hearst magazine covers exclusively under contract thru the early 1930’s until his death. The Fisher Girls rivaled the Gibson Girls created by artist Charles Dana Gibson.. In 1886 Charles Dana Gibson sold his first drawing to John Ames Mitchell, the Editor of the original Life Magazine, a weekly humor magazine in January 1883. Gibson became the Editor and Publisher of Life magazine after World War I. While well-known artists such as Maxfield Parrish, Coles Phillips, and John Held, Jr. illustrated Life’s covers, a little known artist, T.S. Sullivant was drawing the cartoons. T. S. Sullivant (1854-1826) studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His mentor was A.B. Frost who helped him connect with Puck Magazine and then onto Judge and Life Magazine. Out of all the afore-mentioned magazine artists/illustrators T. S. Sullivant has probably had the most influence on our modern visual world .His cartoons of animals and cave people have been inspiring the animation artists of Disney and Warner since “Fantasia“. The Disney Studio Library has Sullivant clippings that in spite of computer-generated graphics are still revered by Disney artists. If you or your children have seen The Lion King, you have seen the heritage of T.S. Sullivant.
A German Magazine called Jugend was the harbinger of Art Nouveau. Some of Aubrey Beardsley ‘s earliest work was in the Chap-Book. Vogue Magazine featured the Art Deco illustrations of Helen Dryden, Georges Lepape and Erte.
The third area of magazines that collectors cultivate is advertising. Magazine specialists call these people “Rippers”- after Jack. These are the people that cull Vintage magazines for Cream of Wheat ads, Packard, Ford, and Ivory Soap ads by artists such as Joseph Clement Coll, Jessie Willcox Smith , Coles Phillips, Maxfield Parrish ( he did quite a few Colgate ads), and of course the King of Ad collecting: Coca-Cola. Ad collectors are as stringent and exacting as author and illustrator collectors. If one page is missing from a magazine, it is returned, regardless, of the fact that it does not have their coveted ad on that page.
Most of all vintage magazines offer a wonderful opportunity for time travel. In the same day you can vicariously experience the San Francisco Earthquake, follow the murderous trail of Jack The Ripper, cry for the children of the Donner Party, or laugh at the wit of H.L. Mencken and Robert Benchley. You are on the scene in both words and pictures from a "now" point of view. The only thing you need to start your trip
is the knowledge of what to collect.
Nuts and Bolts
The book is arranged in two sections: people and magazines. It is frankly impossible to produce a price guide that covers the field in any comprehensive way. Whole books are devoted to superficial surveys of a single magazine, even a single illustrator's association with a single magazine. So we were forced to look for some system that would allow us to bring a general price guide to the public.
It starts with the people whose contributions make magazines collectible. We divided them into two categories; based really on the perception we get in buying them, as to which are well-known and which are relatively unknown to the general public. The "Stars," people like L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of OZ, and F. Scott Fitzgerald are recognizable immediately as collectible contributors, Jack the Ripper, a collectible subject. Most people know them and, even in a flea market setting, they raise the prices of vintage magazines containing them. The "Sleepers" are not so well known by the general public. However, they have the same effect as the "Stars" on the collectible price of a vintage magazine. While most of the public would be aware that a vintage magazine with a story by Edgar Allen Poe, or a cover illustration by Maxfield Parrish is going to be worth more than an unremarkable issue of the same magazine, most people would not attribute the same attributes to a vintage magazine with a story by Kate Cleary or a cover illustrated by Harrison Fisher.
The second section contains the magazines and prices, both of unremarkable issues and issues that are more desirable, or collectible. It would be impossible to present all of the issues of a major magazine such as The Saturday Evening Post, and this is true of most magazines outside of the very limited range of small literary magazines that were important, but short-lived, additions to our culture. Where possible, the entire run of a short lived literary, "small" magazine, such as The Wave, or transition is given. With the larger magazines, a range of issues is given, and were possible, a conjecture, in the form of a contributor or contributors is given. As Elaine pointed out, there are numerous reasons to collect magazines, and the "conjecture" is just that. The prominence of a single issue as a collectible can be determined by several factors, and an issue with Agatha Christie AND an ad for Coca Cola, may be more collectible than Dame Agatha sans cola. However, you can get some indication and determine the value of your magazine accordingly.
To take an example, you found an old copy of Good Housekeeping. Initially, worth the unremarkable issue price of $10. Looking through it, you find an ad for Jantzen swimming suits in which the girl seems to fade away. If you have read the sleeper section, you know that you have one of the collectible "fade away girl" ads done by Coles Phillips, so on the strength of that alone, the magazine has jumped to $15. Looking more closely, you find a star, perhaps Agatha Christie and the price jumps to $45. Perhaps not and $15. remains the tag.
Condition is a major feature of vintage magazine collecting. You can use the following scale to determine, roughly, the condition of a magazine. However, magazines have never been as well classified as books, so be sure to query before buying on the internet or through mail order to be sure your grading scale is close to the one being used.
Fine- A magazine without paper loss of any kind and without stains or creases. Minor age toning only.
Very Good- Without paper loss but with minor creasing and/or staining. Minor age toning.
Good- Minor paper loss (Chipping etc) unaffecting type and not obscuring the main body of art work. Some creasing and/or staining, as well as age toning which doesn't obscure type.
Fair- Complete but with paper loss obscuring some type and or/art work. Usually used for magazines that are intact with a collectible feature in better condition than the magazine as a whole.
Poor- Fair, lacking pages.
Disbound- Pieces of a magazine without the binding.
Magazines are frequently "ripped," as Elaine mentioned. How do you think all those Norman Rockwell covers ended up framed at your local antique mall? So check each magazine carefully to be sure it is complete.
All of the prices, with the exceptions of a couple noted auction records, in the book have been determined by an average of at least three "fine" copies and are retail prices.
Happy hunting.
Stars
L. (Lyman) Frank Baum (1856-1919) from Chittenango, NY was the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which became one of the most popular Children’s book series ever written. He was a newspaper reporter, publisher and playwright. His first children’s book, Mother Goose in Prose (1897) was illustrated by Maxfield Parrish (qv.). Collaborating with illustrator William Wallace Denslow (qv.), he produced the best selling Father Goose, His Book (1899), and the first successful Oz book The Wonderful World of Oz (1900). Subsequent books in the Oz series were illustrated by John R. Neill. Baum also wrote children’s stories for various magazines. His earliest known story publication was "The Extravagance of Dan" in The National Magazine issue of May 1897."Animal Fairy Tales", a series of nine stories illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull appeared in The Delineator January thru September of 1905. Other appearances of Baum’s fairy tale stories appeared in such publications as St. Nicholas Magazine with “Juggerjook” (December 1910),” Aunt Phroney's Boy” ( December 1912),and Ladies’ World "The Man Fairy" (December 1910),"The Tramp and the Baby"( October 1911). The Yellow Brick Road turns to gold when there is a magazine appearance of Baum’s work.
Robert (Charles) Benchley. (1889-1945) from Worcester, Massachusetts was a humorist, drama critic, and film actor. Robert E. Sherwood enticed fellow Algonquin Round Table Wits Dorothy Parker (qv.) and Benchley to work for the original Life Magazine . Benchley became Life’s Drama Critic from 1920 thru 1929. He barely made the weekly deadline, since he was usually at the Algonquin Round Table . His scathing reviews of Abie’s Irish Rose were notorious: “Opened in May 1922, and was immediately condemned by this department”. Under the pseudonym "Guy Fawkes," 1927-1939, he wrote “Wayward Press" (criticism) columns for The New Yorker . He became their regular drama critic from 1929-1940. He also published 12 books of short stories. The Benchley wil shaped magazines of the era with such axioms as "It took me fifteen years to discove that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous." His priceless wit has made some of his magazine appearances priceless.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913?), an Ohio -born Civil War soldier, traveled West to become one of the most witty San Francisco columnists, and editors of his time. Bierce’s first journalism job was with the San Francisco News Letter ( 1868-1872) where he worked as Editor , and wrote the Town Crier column. His first short story, "The Haunted Valley," appeared in the Overland Monthly (Jan 1871), edited by Bret Harte (qv.). As associate editor of the Argonaut (March 1877) AGB, wrote a column, "The Prattler”, which along with his writing in the San Francisco Wasp (March 1881-Sep 1886), became the basis for his most famous book The Devil’s Dictionary (Oct 1906). Hired by William Randolph Hearst in 1887 for the San Francisco Examiner , Bierce began publishing his Civil War stories . In September of 1905 thru 1908 he wrote columns for Hearst's Cosmopolitan Magazine such as "The Passing Show" and “Small Contributions". His comment on Hearst upon his resignation from Cosmopolitan was "Nobody but God loves him..." On November 28, 1913 Bierce crossed the International Bridge between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on horseback, reportedly to join Pancho Villa's revolutionaries and disappeared. His writing legacy remains highly desirable.
Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933) a Harvard graduate from the “Wild West” of Warren, Ohio, was a newspaper columnist for the Boston Traveler. Fired for his “offensive” drama reviews, he wrote a successful novel Seven Keys to Baldpate which first appeared as a serialization in the Sunday Magazines on January 5,1913. While on vacation in Honolulu , a newspaper article about the exploits of two Chinese detectives, Chang Apana and Lee Fook, inspired Biggers to create a character that was very unique to American mystery readers in the 1920s: a Chinese detective. On January 24, 1925, The Saturday Evening Post carried the first installment of "The House Without a Key," thus introducing the world to Charlie Chan. An instantaneous success, Biggers sold the movie rights and moved to California. For the third Charlie Chan novel, “Behind That Curtain" The Saturday Evening Post paid Biggers $25,000 for the serialized version which appeared in 1928. Subsequent Chan novels were also serialized in the Post making those issues a fortune hunt for fans.
James M. Cain (1892-1977) was a journalist turned fiction writer whose books became classics of film noir. H. L. Mencken (qv.), a co-writer at the Baltimore Sun, talked Cain into his first fiction pieces for the American Mercury beginning with “Pastoral“ in March, 1928. Cain continued to write both non-fiction and fiction for magazines until the success of The Postman Always Rings Twice (Knopf, 1934) and Double Indemnity, originally a serial in Liberty (1936), brought him fame and became very successful films. Along with Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett (qv.) Cain is considered to be one of the founders of the “Hard-boiled” school of crime writers and film adaptations of his novels, notably Double Indemnity by Raymond Chandler are credited with establishing film noir. Early Cain non-fiction and his early fiction enhance the values of the American Mercury dramatically, he is a plus for other magazines as well, but mostly for his fiction.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was a best selling writer for more than fifty years, creating ingenious mysteries and a large cast of detectives to solve them. Over half of her work originally appeared in magazines and all of her books were reprinted in magazine formats. Original appearances of Christie novels and short stories are highly prized collectibles and reprints often enhance the value of the magazine in which they appear. Original appearances of Christie novels such as Sad Cypress (Collier’s November 25th, 1939 to January 27th, 1940) are valued at $500. or more , and original short stories such as "The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest" in the Strand of January, 1932, more than double the worth of unremarkable numbers of the same magazine. Christie’s stories and serials in the Saturday Evening Post, originals, reprints and first American appearances have become classic collectibles and are highly sought after, and American television showings of British television series featuring both Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple have introduced her to a new generation..
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) born in London, was the eldest child of British landscape painter, William Collins, R. A. In the early 1850’s Collins contributed to Household Words, a weekly periodical published by his friend Charles Dickens. A prolific author, Collins work consisted of 23 novels and 50 short stories. His highly popular novels The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868), are regarded as the first, modern English detective novels. “The Woman in White” was serialized in 1859 in both Dickens’ Household Words and the American Harper’s Weekly. The Moonstone in Dickens’ All the Year Round January 4, 1868-August 8, 1868. Armadale was serialized in The Cornhill Magazine Nov 1864-June 1866. Perhaps, one of his most controversial novels The Law and The Lady was serialized in The Graphic September 26,1874- March 13,1875. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic panned the novel. Questioning whether Collins had reached a point of “mental decadence” and felt “obliged to fall back on monstrosities”. Nevertheless, the work of Collins created a whole new genre of literature and very desirable today as a collectible.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) born in Portsmouth, England started his writing career as a reporter and editor. His serialized novel ,The Pickwick Papers, turned Dickens from an obscure reporter into a celebrity. Oliver Twist, the first of Dickens's novels to be published as part of a magazine, was serialized in Bentley’s Miscellany (Dickens was the editor) in 1838. Dickens later became half-owner and editor of Household Words .He handled every aspect of the magazine's production, from soliciting manuscripts to directing revisions to writing most of the articles. His good friend and fellow writer Wilkie Collins became a regular contributor to Household Words, although for the most part the writers were anonymous. After a dispute with the publishers Dickens published the last issue of Household Words on May 28,1859. He promptly began to publish All The Year Round which served as another vehicle for his novel serializations, and was turned over to his son prior to his death. His unfinished manuscript “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” remains a mystery to this day. Dickens died when it was half-completed and only six parts were published in All The Year Round April 1870-September 1870.
Gustave Dore (1832-83) of Strasbourg was one of the most popular and prolific French Illustrators of the 1800’s. His output was remarkable both in the number of engravings (10,000+) and the number of editions (4,000+) that he produced. At the age of 16, Doré became the highest paid illustrator in France. He was the featured artist of publisher Charles Philipon’s humor weekly, Journal Pour Rire.(1847-1858). In 1861, Dore produced the Folio for his now famous Dante’s Inferno which established him as a source for the horror genre. In December of 1865, Doré folios of the Bible, Milton and Tennyson were published in England by Cassell . With the introduction of electrotypes in the engraving process, Dore’s illustrations gained an international following. In 1871 American publisher James Sutton began to feature the engravings of Dore in his monthly periodical The Aldine ,The Art Journal of America .Claiming to be the “Handsomest Paper in the World”, The Aldine’s quality paper stock and large elephant folio size pages created the perfect venue for Dore’s framable large engravings . Find an Aldine with Dore today, and it will look as if it came right off the press.
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) from Edinburgh, Scotland was an unsuccessful doctor, who became a successful author. His first published story was “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley” in the October 1879 issue of Chambers’s Journal. His biggest success was Sherlock Holmes who was introduced in the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual with A Study in Scarlet, and popularized with the publication of “A Scandal in Bohemia” in The Strand Magazine in July of 1891.His other unique creation was Professor George E. Challenger in The Lost World ,a. sci-fi/fantasy adventure. The Lost World captured the imagination of the American public in the Sunday Magazines from March 17-July 21 1912 with illustrations by Joseph Clement Coll. Writing both fiction and non-fiction, Doyle’s presence can be counted upon to enhance the value of any magazine, alive or dead. "An Authentic Interview With Conan Doyle From Beyond" by Harry Price in Cosmopolitan Magazine January 1931, insured the issue as highly collectible.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the most talented poets who ever lived. He had a natural ear and feeling for poetry in all forms and could craft it in both conventional English and dialects, creating spelling as he went along. Despite an admirable record in high school, he began his career by self-publishing and working at menial jobs, selling his poetry to people who rode the elevator he operated. Despite his own lack of formal education, his obvious talent and self-education was evident in his writing. Dunbar’s work was so impressive that exposure brought him many champions. One, W. D. Howells wrote the introduction to his second book and, as editor of Harper’s Weekly, brought him greater exposure, as did the regard of his high school classmates Orville and Wilbur Wright. Dunbar published in the Century, the Denver Post, Current Literature and a number of other magazines and journals. His work usually more than doubles the worth of an average issue.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was such an important inventor that he has been called the “most influential man of the modern age”. As both a writer and a journalistic subject, Edison is a major part of collectible magazines. Edison’s own writing on his inventions as in his article in Scientific American August 27, 1887; on other inventions such as the x-ray in Century, May, 1896, and other subjects like his article “Has Man an Immortal Soul” in Forum, November, 1926 are all highly collectible and sought after. As a journalistic subject, each new Edison invention, even his moving his laboratory became the subject of several magazine articles, most of which have become collectible. From the 1880s on, Edison lived in a species of journalistic fishbowl and his work, as well as his ideas were chronicled in American magazines. His stature can, perhaps, be glimpsed in the fact that even the ads for his inventions have become collectible features of many magazines.
T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) poet, critic, and editor, born Thomas Stearns Eliot in St. Louis, Missouri , and spent most of his life in England. He became friends with Ezra Pound , who introduced him to Harriet Monroe, the editor of Poetry Magazine. In 1915 Poetry published Eliot's first notable piece, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” . As assistant editor of Harriet Shaw Weavers’ (qv.) avant-garde magazine the Egoist, Eliot proofread the serial publication of James Joyce's Ulysses. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land was published in the November 1922 issue of the Dial. Consequently, he was awarded the magazine's annual prize of $2,000 .Lady Rothermere, wife of the publisher of the Daily Mail, hired him to edit a high-profile literary journal in October 1922 called the Criterion. The Criterion's editorial voice placed Eliot at the center of London writing. It ceased publication in 1939 due to the impending war. Interestingly, the issue of the Dial containing The Waste Land is worth as much as Eliot’s prize.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) from St. Paul Minnesota was the epitome of the Jazz Age. Having married Zelda Sayre, a Southern belle, the two partied together on both sides of the Atlantic. His first book This Side of Paradise made him a literary sensation, but his most significant tome was The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald continually published magazine stories to afford his extravagant lifestyle with Zelda. He was a regular contributor to Smart Set, The Saturday Evening Post, Metropolitan Magazine, Hearst’s International, and Esquire during the ‘20’s and 30’s. Most of the stories he wrote were later collected in book form in Tales of the Jazz Age, Taps at Reveille, Flappers and Philosophers and The Price Was High. In 1937, Zelda’s death in a fire in a mental institution, he won a contract to write for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Hollywood and fell in love with English movie columnist, Sheila Graham. Fitzgerald was a master of the English language and his magazine short stories were the perfect format for his unique gift
Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) a prolific and best-selling author began his career in Breezy Stories with “The Police of the House” in June of 1921. Along with Dashiell Hammett (qv.) he became one of the mainstays of the pulp magazine Black Mask starting with “The Shrieking Skeleton” under the pseudonym Charles M. Green in the December 15th issue of 1923. As A. A. Fair, Carlton Kendrake, Charles G. Kenny and under his own name he sent detectives such as Donald Lam & Bertha Cool, Lester Leith, Paul Prey, Doug Selby, Terry Clane, Gramps Wiggins and, of course, attorney Perry Mason against malefactors in pulps until the pulps began to fade in the early 1940s. From 1957 through 1966, the Perry Mason television show sparked an interest in Gardner and he turned to both fiction and non-fiction articles. Though his later, non-pulp production has yet to reach the worth or collectibitity of his earlier pulp period, they might be looked on as a bargain currently.
Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) a Roxbury, Massachusetts artist, editor and publisher. In the fall of 1886 Gibson sold a small drawing for $4.00 to John A Mitchell for the satirical weekly Life Magazine. His work began to appear in The Century, Harper's Monthly and Weekly, and Harper's Bazaar along with Life. In the 1890’s as the creator of America’s Sweetheart, “The Gibson Girl”, he became an art superstar. His influential relationship with Life Magazine spanned 30 years .He built the Life home and offices in 1893 in New York City, which still exists today as The Herald Square Hotel. After the death of Mitchell, he became both the editor and publisher contracting artists such as Maxfield Parrish, Coles Phillips, and Norman Rockwell for its covers. John Held, Jr ‘s flapper girls on Life’s covers symbolized the Roaring Twenties. Robert E. Sherwood, Robert Benchley, and Dorothy Parker were the writers who satirized the era. The issues of the Gibson produced Life Magazine are the most sought after among collectors.
Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) of Arcola, Illinois, the son of a landscape artist, was the creator of the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy books and rag dolls. In 1901 he started his artistic career as a newspaper cartoonist working for such varied newspapers as the Indianapolis Star ,the rival Indianapolis Sentinel, Cleveland Press, and The New York Herald. While his early cartoons were geared to adults in such publications as Cosmopolitan, Life, Judge (which published his "Yapp's Crossing" series), Physical Culture, Illustrated Sunday Magazine, and College Humor, his most important audience became children. Gruelle's illustrated juvenile features appeared in John Martin's Book, McCall's Magazine, The Ladies' World, Woman's World and Good Housekeeping. It was his illustrating work that led him to create a rag doll for his daughter, Marcella, named "Raggedy Ann". Initially, the Gruelle family hand-made small quantities of the rag doll which Gruelle patented and trademarked in 1915. After the tragic death of his daughter, Marcella, from an infected vaccination, Gruelle continued his Raggedy Ann and Andy books (published by the P.F. Volland company) as a tribute. His magazine contribution are highly prized by collectors.
Zane Grey (1872-1939) began his career with Betty Zane (NY: Charles Francis Press, 1903), published with a vanity press and parlayed it’s success into a career that, among other things, saw him become the best selling author of western fiction in the 20th century. Along with his westerns, Grey published on fishing, travel, and wrote books for boys. Most of his work started in magazines such as “Tales of the South Seas” in Physical Culture August 1931. He had long associations with both Country Gentlemen and Field and Stream, as well as published both original stories and reprints in most major magazines and pulps over his career. Grey was and is highly collectible as a magazine writer in all phases of his writing. A gauge to how closely he was tied to the magazine market is Zane Grey’s Western Magazine, which reprinted abridged versions of his western stories as a very successful pulp magazine from 1946 through 1974.
H.(Henry) Rider Haggard (1856-1925) the son of a Norfolk, UK squire, spent six years while still a young man in South Africa. Haggard's interest in African tribal activity, landscape, wildlife and mysterious history influenced his writing career. His most famous and best-selling adventure novels King Solomon's Mines (1885) inspired by R.L Stevenson’s Treasure Island and She (1887) considered the first Lost Race story, were based on his African experiences. At the age of thirty-four, Haggard had become a household name. He published one to three books a year, in which the setting ranged from Iceland to the South Seas to England and of course Africa. His output was extremely prolific publishing over 70 fiction and non-fiction books plus numerous articles and short stories. The Pall Mall Magazine and Windsor Magazine serialized his novels and published his non-fiction, as did The Strand Magazine. The Cornhill Magazine, Cassell's Magazine, Longman’s Magazine, Macmillan’s Magazine and The Queen. In America his work appeared in the Sunday Magazines, Pearson’s, Gunter’s and Adventure to name a few. His magazine appearances are highly valuable including periodicals, which negatively satirized him and reviewed his books. such as the American Life Magazine and British Punch, Or The London Chiavari .
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961), a Pinkerton detective, was discovered by high school classmate H. L. Mencken, and began his writing career in Smart Set with “The Parthian Shot” (October, 1922) and “The Great Lovers” (November, 1922). Switching to the Mencken/Nathan pulp, Black Mask under the pseudonym Peter Collinson , and creating his first hard-boiled detective, the Continental op in “Arson Plus” (October, 1923), Hammett became a mainstay of that pulp and branched out to include The New Pearson’s Magazine, Sunset, and Judge, along with pulps Argosy, True Detective, Brief Stories, Action Stories, and Saucy Stories in his resume before his first book, Red Harvest ( NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929). Most of Hammett’s work had it’s original appearance in a magazine, and most of it is highly collectible. Sam Spade from American Magazine (July, 1932); and Nick Charles from Redbook (December, 1933) are two major examples. One interesting and lucrative find for Hammett is "The Crusader" (Smart Set. August, 1923) under the pseudonym Mary Jane Hammett.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) an Eatonton, Georgia journalist with the Atlanta Constitution is still chiefly known for his stories of Southern black folk-lore. His "Uncle Remus " tales with their wit, wisdom, and sympathy, combined with his knowledge of Southern Black dialect and character, made his first book "Uncle Remus, His Songs and Sayings" (1881) a huge popular success. Unique among folk-stories, and distinctively American his forty books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. Many of the Uncle Remus tales were featured in the Saturday Evening Post. The Post also serialized "A Little Union Scout" with illustrations by George Gibbs. Other periodicals such as Collier's Weekly, Century Magazine, and St. Nicholas Magazine featured his work. Uncle Remus's Home Magazine ( 1906-1909) founded by Harris and published by Sunny South Publishing in Atlanta, Georgia was flavored with his folksy humor. Don Marquis, creator of Archy and Mehitabel was the Associate Editor. Contributors included writers like Jack London (qv.) and Frank Stanton making this a very desirable publication for collectors.
(Francis) Bret Harte (1836-1902) born in Albany New York went West with his Mother after the death of his Father. In San Francisco while writing for The Californian he met and worked with Mark Twain. Harte became the first editor of the Overland Monthly in 1868 .His stories "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" published in the Overland Monthly brought him instant and wide fame. As the chronicler of frontier California he was hailed during the 1860s as the "new prophet of American letters." Eastern magazines courted his work since he had become a phenomena establishing the foundations of western American fiction. San Francisco critic Ambrose Bierce called his humor "incomparable". He moved to Boston to be a contributing editor for Atlantic Monthly. In 1877 he wrote the play Ah Sin with his friend Mark Twain. Eventually, he migrated to England where his work was published in the great British periodicals such as The Idler, The Strand, The Windsor, The London Magazine, and Pall Mall. However, Harte's work in The Overland Monthly is as good as California Gold.
John Held Jr. (1889-1958) of Salt Lake City, Utah began his art career as a sports cartoonist for the Salt Lake Tribune. He sold his first drawing to Life Magazine at age fifteen. After moving to New York City, he found work as a commercial artist easily. Along with his drawings and cover art for Life and Judge, he began to draw for the new Harold Ross magazine The New Yorker (1925). Held's flapper drawings of Betty Coed and Joe College took the place of the Gibson Girl in the public’s mind during the Roaring Twenties. He was the artistic chronicler of the Jazz Age and even the readers of Harper's Bazaar, Redbook, and Vanity Fair couldn't get enough of Held. Fans would send him blank checks in the hopes of obtaining an illustration. The public's fascination and love affair with John Held, Jr. remains to this day. Any magazines with Held's cover art are snapped up by collectors, who are willing to pay a premium to own a piece of the Jazz Age.
Winslow Homer (1836-1910) born in Boston ,the American naturalist painter was most famous for his American landscape paintings and his seascapes off of the Maine coastline where he lived the latter part of his life. Interestingly, he began the pursuit of his art career as an apprentice in the Boston lithographic firm of John Bufford. A self-taught artist, Winslow Homer started as an illustrator of magazines and became a regular contributor of engraving drawings to Harper's Weekly in the 1850's. Throughout the Civil War and afterwards, he did engravings for Appleton's Journal, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Ballou's Monthly, The Galaxy, and Harper's Bazaar to name a few. Aside from his Civil War illustrations, his subject matter was usually rural farm scenes, children at play, and fashionable women. He also did illustrations for The Century and the children's magazine St. Nicholas. The last magazine illustrations done by Winslow Homer can be found on page 664 of St Nicholas Magazine Volume VII May 1881-October 1881.Winslow Homer's early magazine engravings are expensive, but they are at least obtainable to collectors.
Jack the Ripper (August 1888- 18?) also known as the "Whitechapel Murderer" and "Leather Apron", a sexually oriented serial killer who killed a number of prostitutes in the East End of London in 1888. Jack The Ripper became a "Media Event" in 1888 with his brutality and taunting messages to the Metropolitan and City of London Police. He represented a "cause celebre" for the press and political reformers upset with the poverty-stricken conditions that prevailed in the Whitechapel area. His exploits were chronicled daily in the London newspapers along with speculations as to the identity of the fiend which eventually became part of the "romance" of Jack The Ripper. There was not even a consensus on how many women Jack murdered. It could have been anywhere from 5-9 or more, although there were certainly five documented examples from August thru November 1888. There are several publications that Ripperologists would literally kill to own in addition to various newspaper accounts. Punch, Or The London Chiavari satirized the Ripper Murders in six issues from 1888-1889, and the Illustrated London News, October 13,1888 published an artist's sketch of a suspicious character that many believe was the Ripper.
Will James (1892-1942), the pseudonym of Canadian artist/writer Ernest Dufault has been called "the pied piper of the West”. As an illustrator and writer of both fiction and non-fiction, James has, more than any other writer, created the American mythology of the “cowboy”. James began his publishing career as an illustrator for Sunset in January of 1920 with his drawing “A One-Man Horse”. In March, 1923, he combined his drawing with an article for Scribner’s, "Bucking Horses and Bucking-Horse Riders" that was so well received he became a regular contributor. Contributions to Scribner’s and "Once A Cowboy", from the Saturday Evening Post, June 1924, made up his first book, Cowboys North and South (NY: Scribner’s, 1924), followed the next year by another anthology of magazine pieces, The Drifting Cowboy (NY: Scribner’s, 1925). During his career, James contributed to Scribner’s, Saturday Evening Post, Sunset, Liberty, The Bookman, and Southwest Review adding substantially to the value of those issues as collectibles.
Ring Lardner
(1885-1933) humorist, satirist and charter member of the Algonquin
round table is perhaps most influential in the area of magazines for
his view of sports. He began his career with the South Bend
Tribune and worked his way up through the Chicago Dailies to New
York as a sports writer. Although remembered as a humorist, for
characters like Alibi Ike, his more serious pieces on sports,
especially baseball set a standard and a tone for sports journalism
that has been followed since he wrote such pieces as “TYRUS: The
Greatest One Of 'Em All“, in the June 1915 American Magazine.
While most of his short stories saw print initially in magazines,
it is his sports stories that remain at the top of the collectible
heap from the early pieces in American through the
later pieces for Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and Saturday
Evening Post. Original short stories are hardly throw-aways and
do have a collectible audience, but they not on the same level as
collectibles or influences.
J. (Joseph) C. (Christian). Leyendecker (1874-1951) was born in Montabaur, Germany and migrated to America when he was eight years old . He studied at the Chicago Art Institute and the Academie Julian in Paris. His brother Frank X. Leyendecker was also an artist, but overshadowed by Joseph. In 1896, Joseph won a Century Magazine cover competition beating out a 2nd place Maxfield Parrish. This led to cover assignments for twelve Inland Printer covers for 1897 and cover designs for the leading publications like Life, Century, Colliers, and The Saturday Evening Post. His first Saturday Evening Post cover was done in 1899, and he did over 320 more during the next forty years as a respected commercial artist he received highly paid commissions for advertising illustrations. His advertising illustrations are as collectible in the magazines of the period as his covers. His Arrow Collar man was a debonair, handsome male, and women wrote thousands of love letters to him care of Cluett, Peabody & Company. His illustrations for Hart, Schaffner & Marx were equally successful in promoting an image of suited elegance. J.C. Leyendecker is valuable to magazine collectors for covers, interiors and ads. He typified the Golden Age of Illustration.
Jack London (1876 - 1916) from San Francisco and the waterfront dives of Oakland, California became one of the highest paid novelists and short story writers of his day. His first commercial sale for $40.00 was "A Thousand Deaths" in the Black Cat Magazine May 1899. According to London it was the "first money I ever received for a story." Other short stories appeared in Overland Monthly , Atlantic Monthly and McClure's Magazine . Possibly his most famous novel "The Call Of The Wild "was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in five issues June 20 thru July 18 1903 illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull. The Century Magazine serialized The Sea-Wolf from January -November 1904. William Randolph Hearst serialized London's work in Cosmopolitan:"Moon Face and Other Stories" (1906), "The Voyage of the Snark" (1906), "Smoke Bellew" (1911),"The Valley of the Moon" (1913), "The Little Lady of the Big House" (1915). London's Socialist leanings were expressed in Collier's Magazine in "The Trouble Makers of Mexico" June 13,1914. Children's stories in St Nicholas Magazine and the Youth's Companion. Any magazine with a by-line by Jack London raises the value to an extraordinary level.
William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) born in Paris at the British Embassy was also a doctor who abandoned medicine for a lucrative career as a writer and playwright. His first novel, "Liza of Lambeth" published in 1897, drew on his obstetric experiences in the London slums. By 1908 he had four plays running simultaneously in London. The semi-autobiographical novel "Of Human Bondage" (1915) is usually considered his outstanding achievement "The Moon and The Sixpence" (1919) based on artist Paul Gauguin was among the most popular of his novels. In the 1920's and 1930's Maugham's short stories that appeared in American magazines made him more popular in America than England and very wealthy. Hearst's International which later became known as Cosmopolitan published his most memorable stories such as " The British Agent" February 1928," The Man Who Made His Mark" June 1929, "Marriage of Convenience" January 1930, "Virtue" February 1931, "Gigolo and Gigolette" July 1935, to name a few. Eventually, many of these stories became subjects for Hollywood films which makes their magazine appearances even more valuable.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) was a newspaperman, author, and literary and social critic who was born and raised in Baltimore. During the 1920s, he was one of the most influential figures in the United States. His association with magazines began with Smart Set, where he shared criticism and editing duties with George Jean Nathan (qv.) from 1908 through 1924. During this period he co-founded, along with Nathan, the pulp magazines Parisienne, Saucy Stories, and Black Mask. In 1924, Mencken launched the American Mercury, with Nathan as co-editor. He took over as sole editor after the fourth issue and continued in that post until 1933. Stories by and about H. L. Mencken add a factor of increased value to magazines beyond Smart Set and the Mercury, especially during the 1920s, the height of Mencken’s popularity. Mencken’s stature was such that stories about him, or arguing with him have become as important, if not more important, than his own writing. His influence on American magazines was unquestionably one of the major factors in the evolution of modern publishing.
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) of Czech origin made his fortune as an artist in Paris. As a pioneer of Art Nouveau in Paris and America, Mucha achieved immediate fame when, in December 1894, he accepted a commission to create a poster for the actress Sarah Bernhardt. The poster, "Gismonda." which appeared on January 1,1895, marked a sharp break with previous poster design because of its new unconventional style. Bernhardt loved it and so did the public. 'Le style Mucha´, as Art Nouveau was known in its earliest days, was born. The success of that first poster brought a 6 years contract between Bernhardt and Mucha and in the following years his work for her and others included costumes and stage decorations, designs for magazines and book covers, jewelery and furniture and numerous posters. His unique art covers and advertising illustrations began to appear in French magazines such as La Plume January 1899 and Le Mois Letteraire Etpittoresque, September 1906. In America he produced covers for Burr-McIntosh Monthly, October 1907. Mucha's magazine covers are worth a small King's ransom.
George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) America’s premier drama critic, George Jean Nathan was one of the most influential magazine editors of the early 20th century. Along with H. L. Mencken (qv.) he edited Smart Set and created the pulp magazines Parisienne, Saucy Stories, and Black Mask. In 1924, he co-founded the American Mercury, again with Mencken, and, in 1932, founded The American Spectator, which he edited until 1935. An early champion of such playwrights as August Strindberg and Eugene O’Neill, Nathan made magazine history by arranging that the first publication of the O’Neill play All God’s Chillun Got Wings appear in the third number of the American Mercury. Nathan is collected as a writer, critic and editor. While sometimes approached as a satellite of Mencken, Nathan’s later work, and his contributions to Smart Set often eclipse Mencken’s writing of the same period. Nathan’s self-effacing humor was not as strident as Mencken’s as evidenced by his characterization of a critic as “...a legless man who teaches running.”
Dorothy Rothschild Parker (1893-1967) from New Jersey crossed the Hudson to become a writer and critic. Starting her career as Vanity Fair's drama critic (1917-21), Dorothy was later fired for her iconoclastic wit . In 1919 she become the only female founding member of the legendary Algonquin Round Table .Her cohorts Robert E. Sherwood and Robert Benchley brought her to Life Magazine. She was also given a free reign at Ainslee's . From the inception of The New Yorker in early 1925 , Dorothy contributed drama reviews ,poetry ,and book reviews under the column "The Constant Reader". In February 1929 her short story "The Big Blonde" won the O. Henry Award .Parker scripted films in Hollywood from 1933 - 1938 winning an Academy Award (1937) for her joint screenplay of "A Star is Born". Her socialist views clarified in 1937 covering the Spanish Civil War for the New Masses . During the McCarthy era she was brought before the House on Un-American Activities and pleaded in typical Dorothy style the First-not the Fifth Amendment. In 1957-1963 she worked as a book reviewer for Esquire magazine, which published her last piece in the November 1964 issue . Needless to say her magazine pieces are priceless.
Frederick Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was born in Philadelphia and studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was one of the most popular artists during America's Golden Age of Illustration producing countless books, calendars, art prints, advertisements, and magazines (both covers and interior illustrations).His first magazine cover was for the Harper's Bazar Easter 1895 issue, when he was 25 years old.. Between 1895-1900 his images graced the covers of Harper's Bazar, Harper's Weekly, Harper's Monthly, Harper's Round Table and Harper's Young People. During the course of his long career, he also did covers and interior illustrations for Scribner's Magazine, McClure’s, Success, Collier's Weekly, Ladies Home Journal, Life, Hearst's, and of course The Century. In July 1896 Parrish won the second prize of $75.from the Century for a poster advertising their Midsummer Number. Other prized Century contributions by Parrish were "L'Allegro" (1901), Ray Stannard Baker's "The Great Southwest" (May 1902-April 1903) and his Edith Wharton collaboration “Italian Villas and Their Gardens" (November 1903 - November 1904). In the 1936 issue of Time magazine Parrish was named one of the world's three most popular artists, the other two being Van Gogh and Cezanne. Parrish art in magazines is still one of the most highly sought after by collectors, and continues to appreciate.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) from Boston was a controversial but brilliant, American poet, critic, editor and writer .His first book published as a pamphlet by "A Bostonian" was Tamerlane And Other Poems (1827) with perhaps 50 copies sold. His first appearance in a magazine of national circulation was the anonymous publication of “The Visionary” in Godey’s Lady’s Book in January 1834 . Championed by editor, Sarah Hale, a great deal of Poe's work was continually published in Godey's. Throughout his brief career, he was an editor and writer for the Southern Literary Messenger (1836), Burton's Gentleman's Magazine (1839-1841), and eventually, Graham's Magazine (1841). During Poe's tenure, the circulation of Graham's Magazine increased from about 5,000 to nearly 37,000 subscribers. The "Murders In The Rue Morgue”, considered to be the first modern detective story, was published in Graham's (April 1841).His most famous poem, "The Raven" for which he received $15., first appeared January 29, 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror. Poe scholars, however, consider the accepted first version to have been published in The American Review: A Whig Journal of Politics, Literature, Art and Science, February, 1845 under the pseudonym, Quarles. Poe's magazine appearances to collectors are priceless.
Arthur Rackham (1867 - 1939) of London, England was the premier illustrator of Children's book classics at the turn-of the-century. His first appearance in print was in Scraps Magazine 1884. In 1900 he caught the imagination of the public with the publication of an illustrated edition of the Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales. His illustrated Rip van Winkle (1905) introduced him to the American public and one year later Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was published. His faeries and goblins could also be found in both black and white and color lithos in magazines of the era such as Cassell's (1896), Little Folks (1896), Punch, Or The London Charivari (1905), Scribner’s (1906) ,The Bookman (1906)and Century Magazine (1913-1914).He was commissioned to illustrate "The Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose" for St. Nicholas Magazine in 1912 thru 1914.In addition, to his magazine story illustrations, Rackham also did a series of colorful ads for Cashmere Bouquet Soap that appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, Pictorial Review, Vogue, Asia, and Good Housekeeping (1923-1925), which are of interest to collectors.
Frederic Remington (1861-1909) of Canton, New York, was one of the great illustrators of the American West. He attended Yale College of Art, but became more involved in playing Football. Harper's Weekly published his first cartoon in 1882.After a trip to the Arizona Territory in 1885, which he spent with the U.S. cavalry chasing the Apaches of Geronimo, Remington returned to the East with a portfolio of drawings. Beginning in January 1866 Harper's Weekly published his work on a consistent basis including his beloved subjects of horses, Indians, soldiers and cowboys. The Century Magazine (1888) serialized Teddy Roosevelt's Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. Remington illustrated the series and became a life-long friend of Roosevelt. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, William Randolph Hearst sent Remington to Cuba to illustrate the "atrocities". Unhappy with the situation, Remington sent a message to Hearst: “There is no War. Request to be recalled.” Typically, Hearst replied: “Please remain. You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the War.” Even though Remington devoted his energies to sculpture in later years, he still continued his Western illustrations for Collier's Weekly (1906) and other publications. His magazine illustrations are still coveted by collectors of Western Americana.