|
|
Ad Code: 4
|
An example of work by Edward Shenton
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
|
|
|
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| An illustrator, author, poet and teacher, Edward Shenton earned special distinction as the illustrator of the 1938 novel, "The Yearling", by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. He also illustrated "Tender is the NIght" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Green Hills of Africa" by Ernest Hemingway and books by Robinson Jeffers, Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner and Alan Villiers. Beginning in the late 1920s, he was illustrator for many years for "Scribners" magazine.
Edward Shenton was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and spent his childhood and youth in West Philadelphia. When he was ages 13 to 15, he had an illness that confined him to his home for two years. He spent much of that time reading and drawing, and these pursuits set his future career as writer and illustrator. When he returned to high school, he became editor of his high school year book and contributed articles as well as artwork. In 1916, he briefly studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, but dropped out in 1917 to join, with his brother, the 103rd Engineers of the Army, serving in France. The drawings he sent back from the front lines were published in "The Philadelphia Record" in 1919. When he returned from the war, he enrolled at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and won Cresson Traveling Scholarships to study in Paris for the years 1923 and 1924.
After Paris, he turned to writing instead of art, and became the editor of Penn Publishing. He wrote his first novel, "The Gray Beginning", published by Penn, and then associated himself with Macrae-Smith Publishing as editor and vice-president. In 1928, his second novel, "The Lean Twilight", was published by Scribners, and a long association began for Shenton with that publishing house and with Maxwell Perkins, well-known editor.
In the 1940s, Shenton focused on illustrating children's books, and completed work for over 50 of them. He also continued as an editor at Macrae-Smith and taught illustration at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He and his wife and son Ned lived from the mid 1930s in West Chester, which meant that he commuted to Philadelphia by train. He took advantage of that travel time to do writing, which resulted in over 75 articles and poems that were published in "Saturday Evening Post", "The New Yorker", "Colliers" and "Atlantic Monthly". Two of his longer poems were set to music and were performed in 1953 as a patriotic cantata by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In November and December 2004, an exhibition of drawings by Shenton was held at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Information provided October 2004 by Ned Shenton, son of the artist.
Sources include:
Brochure "Edward Shenton 1895-1977" by Aurora Publications in Lexington, Massachusetts. Courtesy, Illustration Department, Rhode Island School of Design.
www.edwardshenton.com
|
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|