Tired of Trump? Then read on. Want to read about him? I guess you should come back tomorrow.

I went to another random shelf in our dining room not to look at the books per se, but to look at the art works in the books. Not that there was anything special about the art work in these books, all books of fiction, but that was the point. Book illustration itself is often a unrecognized art form and should not be ignored.

The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler. Illustrated by Andre Durenceau (1904-1985). Durenceau was a French born painter, muralist, jewelry designer and stage and costume designer, as well as book illustrator. He may be best known for mural work for the 1969 New York World’s Fair.

Tolstoy’s War and Peace, with woodcuts by Fritz Eichenberg (1901-1990).  Eichenberg, who taught at the New School and at Pratt Institute, was a prolific book illustrator. Born Jewish in Berlin, he came to the U. S. in 1933 and became a life long Quaker and pacifist.

The illustrator of a oversized edition of Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey is Everard Hopkins (1860-1928), born in England, brother of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. He illustrated this book in 1910, and along with illustrating several others, he was a cartoonist for the British magazine, Punch.

John Austen (1886-1948) illustrated an edition of Lord Byron’s Don Juan. A Beardsley-like illustrator, he also created advertisements and advertising posters.

A volume titled The Golden Tales of Anatole France was illustrated by L.A. Patterson. Here is an example of the book illustrator problem. L.A. Patterson (Lawrence A. Patterson, 1896-1964) was a California native, a junior college art teacher and illustrator of a small number of books. I could not locate him on a Google Search. Thank you, ChatGPT. The illustrations in this book are his best known works.

What do you think? Trump is more interesting?

I did finish The Jungle. And I know a lot about Chicago in 1905. Stock yards, steel mills, machine shops, immigrant conditions, taverns, brothels, Lake Shore Drive mansions, jails, unions, politics, capitalism, trusts, socialism. Quite a tour de force by 27 year old Upton Sinclair. You really should read it.