EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 23 © 2018 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

12 father-son relationship, Wyeth being one of the few students Pyle actually invited home to dinner. However, Wyeth missed his home and his real family, and to compensate being “far from home” wrote letters almost weekly to his mother, something that he would keep doing for the rest of his life. Funnily enough, the first time Wyeth sold any illustrations was during a trip he made to New York, while still a student at Pyle’s art school, and without any input from Pyle or any of his many connections in the illustration field. After getting a commission for an interior illustration for the magazine Courier , Wyeth was invited to do a cover for the Saturday Evening Post, just on the strength of his samples. The Saturday Evening Post, one of the oldest magazines in America and founded by Benjamin Franklin, had a readership of over a million, so getting the cover was a big deal. When Wyeth was invited to visit by a cousin he had barely met, he was surprised to see that the cover he had done for the Saturday Evening Post was proudly displayed in the living room, and he was congratulated by everyone there. Finally Wyeth could prove to his father the value of his decision, although he only got paid $50 for that first cover, but back in the day, that was still a lot of money. In 1904, while still studying under Pyle, a major event occurred: Wyeth fell in love with a girl four years All the images on these pages are from the first of the Scribner’s Illustrated Classics Wyeth painted: ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert L. Stevenson. FACING PAGE: The Hostage – For all the world, I was led like a dancing bear , oil on canvas, 1911. Wyeth based Long John Silver on his mentor Howard Pyle. ABOVE LEFT: Captain Bill Bones – All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope , oil on canvas, 1911. ABOVE RIGHT: Old Pew – Tapping up and down the road in a frenzy, and groping and calling for his comrades , oil on canvas, 1911. This was Caroline Pyle’s favourite painting by Wyeth.