Between the Covers

Softcover. Three volumes. Octavos. Cloth over thin cardstock. Numbered consecutively 1-3 on the spines. General wear, front hinge of Volume 3 cracked, a little fraying of the cloth, very good or better, internally near fine. The volumes are relatively uniform, each volume consists of approximately 250 blank pages with only a small percentage unused, thus totaling approximately 750 pages of detailed written notes about the artistic process (particularly in the first volume) as well as in excess of 1000 drawings (more often than not several to the page).

A good capsule biography of Smilkstein appears on the website "Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists" by David Saunders. After graduating from Cooper Union in 1934, Smilkstein began his studies with Harvey Dunn at the Grand Central School of Art. According to Saunders: "In 1937 he was awarded Second Prize in Illustration in Dunn's Class. In 1937 he began to sell freelance illustrations to the NYC pulp magazine industry. His pen and ink story illustrations were published in *The Lone Ranger*, *10-Story Western*, *Secret Agent-X*, *Street & Smith's Mystery Magazine*, *Clues Detective*, *Detective Tales*, *Don Winslow of the Navy*, and *Ten Detective Aces*. In 1942 he began to work as a freelance illustrator under the name 'Hal Stone' for *The New York Daily News*. He continued to work for the newspaper for 30 years. In 1942 he drew comic books for the Chesler Studio. During the golden age of comic books he worked as an artist and an editor under the name 'Harry Stein' for Quality Comics, MLJ, Hillman, Fawcett, and Ziff-Davis Comics."

These remarkable sketch books cover the period mostly from 1934 to 1940 (there are a few notes at the end of Volume 3 where he discusses his possible induction into the Army in 1942), during the whole period of his studies with Harvey Dunn, and all the evidence indicates that Smilkstein was a very diligent student, taking copious notes and recording in detail many of Dunn's instructions, quotes, and advice, as well as a few sketches of Dunn himself. The subjects in the books are very widely varied: modern New Yorkers, Westerners, cowboys, pirates, buildings, drawings purposely meant to imitate other contemporary illustrators and artists (Harvey Dunn, Howard Pyle, Dean Cornwall, Will James, Leon Bakst, Boris Artzybasheff, George Bellows, Frank Brangwyn, Rockwell Kent - often right down to their signatures), Old Masters or other early artists (Rubens, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Degas, Daumier, William Blake). A significant number of pages are laid out in story board format, likely for pulps or comic books.

A terrific group of sketch books by an artist who was prolific in the Golden Age of pulps and comics, and a remarkable documentation of the teaching techniques of the important western artist and mentor to other artists, Harvey Dunn.

Item #465583