This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Born near Prescott, Arizona, Harry Behn became a respected illustrator, painter and writer who traveled throughout the West.
He spent his early childhood years in mining camps and in 1904, sent his first drawings to St Nicholas
magazine when he was six years old. Behn graduated from Phoenix
High School, and then worked as a travelogue cameraman, one of many
jobs that give him subjects for painting and writing.
In 1922,
he graduated from Harvard University in Boston, and then taught writing
at the University of Arizona before moving to Los Angeles where he
worked as a writer of movie scenarios. In his leisure time, he
painted and wrote poetry, publishing his first book of poetry, Siesta, in 1931. He also worked as an artist for the Public Works Art Project.
In
1934, his travels included a painting trip to the Grand Canyon, and to
Glacier National Park where the Blackfoot Indians invited him to be a
member of the tribe.
Behn spent his last years in Greenwich,
Connecticut writing and illustrating children's books, something his
children had urged him to do and an accomplishment for which he
received Graphic Awards.
He died September 6, 1973.
Sources:
Doris Dawdy, Artists of the American West (Vol. III)
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940 |
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