The Lone Woodsman by Warren Hastings Miller. (Original Book Illustration Archive)

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A sizeable collection of original artwork by Kreigh Taylor Collins (1908–1974) with the printer’s illustration proofs for the boy’s adventure story, The Lone Woodsman, by Warren Hastings Miller (c.1879–1960), published in 1942 by The John C. Winston Co. of Philadelphia, a noted publisher of children’s and young adult books.

Inventory

1. 19 artist’s drawing boards with 24 pen & ink illustrations for Chapters 1–6 and 8–13, each 20 x 15 inches.
2. 1 proof sheet with multiple illustrations, 13 x 19 inches.
3. 1 title-page proof sheet, 14 x 10¼ inches.
4. 1 title-page mock-up, 16½ x 12½ inches.
5. 1 bound set of progressive color proofs for the dust jacket, 12½ x 19 inches.

Born in Davenport, Iowa, Collins studied art at the Cincinnati Art Academy, the Cleveland Art School, and in Paris, focusing on landscape painting. He began his career as an illustrator for advertising agencies in Chicago and Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the 1930s, Collins worked on newspaper illustrations and painted murals in Texas and landscapes in Taos, New Mexico. From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, he created syndicated comic strips such as “Mitzi McCoy,” “Kevin the Bold,” and the semi-autobiographical “Up Anchor.” He also wrote and illustrated juvenile biographies and adventure stories like The Lone Woodsman.

Warren Hastings Miller (c.1879–1960), the author, was Field and Stream’s editor from 1910 to 1918. He contributed to magazines like Boy’s Life and American Boy. He wrote numerous juvenile adventure stories, with this being “his most popular book by far” according to his son. The story is about an unplanned wilderness survival experience. Set in Upper Ontario, Canada, the 19-year-old protagonist, Dan Pickett, sets out alone with his mongrel dog, Pepper, to live with the Cree Indians for a summer and gather information for his ethnologist father. When his canoe swamps, he must use his wits, skills, and his dog to survive.

This archive’s original drawings by Kreigh Collins primarily depict Dan Pickett and Pepper together in the wilderness and facing adversity: portaging a canoe, dog-sledding, canoeing in dangerous waters, hunting a charging deer, confronting a wolf, and more. One larger drawing is a two-page spread of Dan and Pepper hunting, with the right side reproduced on the cover of the book’s cloth binding. Smaller vignette illustrations, used as head- and tail-pieces and small text illustrations, show Pepper and/or Dan with various camping articles or Native American items such as snowshoes, bows and arrows, moccasins, a handmade baited animal trap, and a wigwam.

Accompanying Collins’s original artwork is a large-format mock-up of the title page, a reduced printed proof of the same, and a single printed proof sheet depicting 18 vignette illustrations, reduced for publication. There is also a set of seven printed, progressive color proofs for the book’s dust jacket, printed by the Philadelphia-Weeks Engraving Company. These proofs show cyan, magenta, yellow, and black separations, as well as built-up combinations and the final four-color dust jacket.

A pleasing collection of original artwork and printer’s proofs for a popular adventure book for young adults, illustrated by a prolific American painter, comic strip creator, and graphic artist.

Price: $1,500.00