Edmund Giesbert's wonderful artwork from 1943 German reader

Basic German Reader is an American school book that was published in 1943 D.C. Heath and Company. The book presents for pupils "1052 German words of highest frequency and 90 idioms." On this particular copy, a student named Jeanne Wilhelm wrote her name on the first page, decades ago. And someone wrote on the cover, adding the words "BLUE BOY."

The cover features one of the illustrations by Edmund Giesbert (1893-1971) and they are the best thing about the book.

Here is a collection of Giesbert's other artwork from the book.

A little more about Giesberg: He was born in Neuwied, Germany, but later came to America. He served as an art professor at the University of Chicago and was an artist who worked in many different mediums. Here's a picture of him from the University of Chicago photographic archives.