Saturday, October 15, 2016

Cool illustrations: The New Human Interest Library (Part 1)

During a Tucked Away Inside post last month, I mentioned that I could get a bundle of posts out of the great photos and illustrations that are featured within my worn copy of The New Human Interest Library. So, by golly, let's do it!

This is Volume I of The Midland Press' The New Human Interest Library. It is subtitled "The Child and His World." It is copyright 1928, with this being the second printing from February 1929.

The Managing Editor of The Midland Press was S.E. Farquhar, who also, we are informed, contributed some articles on Great Industries. Among the dozens of contributors to this set of books were Richard E. Byrd, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Isabel M. Lewis, William T. Hornaday and Frederick Starr.

Here's the full list of contributing artists, since it's their work that will be featured in these posts: Herbert N. Rudeen, Florence White Williams, Donn P. Crane, Frank X. Henke, Ralph Reynolds, Robert W. Chambers, Herbert Joseph, W.C. Shepard, Don Keith Musselman, Cobb Shinn, Nettie Hall, Corina Melder-Collier, B.C. Friedman and Charles Ketcham.

(And yes, I can only assume that's the same Robert W. Chambers who wrote The King in Yellow — he was also an artist. So please feel free to connect these posts and illustrations to the occult theories of your choice.)

This 1928 edition of The New Human Interest Library consisted of six volumes, titled The Child and His World, Stories of Science, Great Industries, Our Country in Romance, Around the World and Leaders of All Times.

From what I can determine, the original set of books, titled The Human Interest Library (without the "New"), was published in 1914 by The Midland Press. There were numerous reprints of The New Human Interest Library, likely with editorial updates, between 1930 and the late 1950s.

Here are the first few illustrations that I have selected for the Papergreat spotlight. Stay tuned for much additional cool stuff under this new label.

(Photograph by Beidler; Courtesy Fashions of the House)

These two illustrations appear to have the signature of Herbert N. Rudeen...



(Tommy Tumble is a great name, by the way.)

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