Henry Patrick Raleigh: The Confident Illustrator
Auad Publishing
Edited by Manuel Auad
9 x 12”
Hardcover with jacket
New copy
128 pages
$34.95 cover price

Henry Patrick Raleigh rose from school dropout at age 12 to esteemed Saturday Evening Post illustrator within the span of two decades. During his forty-year career, Raleigh was one of the highest paid newspaper and magazine artists in the United States, creator of iconic World War I propaganda posters, and arguably the most prominent story illustrator of the Jazz Age. This is the first book ever on the artist, and it’s beautifully done. It features an abundance of full color work, from crowd and party scenes to wonderful advertising pieces.

As a commercial artist working in the field of advertising, very few individuals published as many of their illustrations or earned as much as Henry Patrick Raleigh. He worked for major accounts like Maxwell House Coffee, where they simply turned him loose to provide attention-getting images of beautiful people drinking coffee or simply looking elegant.

A great many of the illustrations here are directly from the original artwork. Includes a full biography and two wonderful fold-out pages.

Raleigh was an incredibly prolific artist, having published 20,000 illustrations by the time he was 43. Called upon to illustrate many works of fiction, he was a master at capturing just the right moment of action or suspense to add to the story.

In addition to the Saturday Evening Post, Raleigh’s illustrations graced the pages of the era’s definitive publications, including Harper’s Bazaar, Collier’s, and Vanity Fair, and brought to life the words of H.G. Wells, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, Somerset Maugham, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Agatha Christie.

From the Preface by his grandson, Christopher Raleigh: “Throughout my childhood, my parents filled my impressionable young mind with stories about my famous grandfather…of the privileged lifestyle he led as a result of financial success as an artist and illustrator. My mother related tales of the famous people he worked with, like F. Scott Fitzgerald [12 of his short stories] and H.G. Wells. There were stories about my mother dancing with Rudolph Valentino and Hank’s (as friends and family called him) models Joseph Cotton and Ginger Rogers. She piqued my imagination with descriptions of New York society events, world travels, yachts, and other luxuries that were so much a part of Hank’s life.”

In 1923, artist Everett Shinn was also a popular art critic…he considered Raleigh the best illustrator in the United States. He illustrated over 500 stories for the Saturday Evening Post alone. In 1991, in Step-by-Steps Graphics, the noted art teacher and author Benjamin Eisenstat wrote, “Henry Raleigh was the highest paid illustrator in America…”

Another first class production from the same specialty editor/publisher that has brought us books on Alex Toth, Robert Fawcett, Albert Dorne, Al Parker, Alex Niño, Nestor Redondo and Franklin Booth.