Long and Short Reviews is very happy to welcome Albert Seligman who is visiting with us to tell us about Edmund Dulac and his American Weekly Collection. Enter the Rafflecopter at the end of the post for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.
In November 1923, Ray Long, one of the editors for the W R Hearst Sunday supplement The American Weekly, offered Dulac a commission to paint an annual series, from eight to twelve illustrations, on a mutually agreed upon theme. The first series, Bible Scenes and Heroes, was to appear next year in Autumn of 1924.
Dulac’s contract lasted for 28 years. He painted thirteen series and 106 covers for the Sunday supplement. In 1951 The American Weekly ceased using paintings for their covers, and started using photography.
My own involvement with The American Weekly covers was through a fortunate meeting with Ann C. Hughey, who published the complete Dulac bibliography of his nearly 100 books. At the time, I was an avid collector of Golden Age illustrators, and Dulac was my specialty. Ann wrote the American Weekly checklist for Colin White’s Edmund Dulac biography with all thirteen series and each issue by title and date. I was able to contact her through an East Coast book dealer, and she invited me to spend the weekend and see her collection. When I asked her to show me the American Weekly covers, she replied that they were never republished since they first appeared. We thought it would be a worthwhile project to find and publish all the covers in one volume, for the benefit of fellow Dulac collectors and dealers.
Of course, we didn’t know where to find the original covers, as most of the newspapers from the 1920’s through the 50’s were long gone. I was living in San Francisco and much of my book collection was provided by Bud Plant and Jim Vadeboncoeur (Jim contributed The American Weekly article for Wikipedia). Jim recommended I call Bill Blackbeard, who owned and operated The San Francisco Academy of Comic Art. Bill had the largest collection of comic art in the whole country, although I didn’t realize it at the time. He had all the Dulac American Weekly’s lying flat in his garage. Bill allowed us to remove the covers and have them professionally photographed. After he died in 2011, his entire seven-ton collection was removed to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at The Ohio State University.
The photographers provided us with transparencies to use in making the printing plates for a full-color publication. We made many submissions to art and comic publishers, but no one wanted to risk the money for such a large color run. This was long before the digital process revolutionized printing, and 10,000 book runs were the minimum for profitability. Reluctantly, we shelved the project, and it never went any further. Ann passed away in 2014.
Only recently I had the transparencies digitalized, and I now have high resolution digital images, suitable for web or print publishing. My first project was an eBook of the 106 The American Weekly Covers, with only a short introduction. The goal was to have something of reference for the collectors and the public to enjoy, and that fit the bill. I discovered with such high-resolution images there were more printing flaws than I first realized. The newspaper covers were all over seventy years old when we photographed them, and were not a high-quality printing job to begin with. So, I have slowly restored the images, one series at a time, and published them individually in a series of short books.
The entire collection Edmund Dulac-His American Weekly Collection, is due on July 4, 2025, after nearly 35 years. This edition includes the Introduction written by Ann Hughey, all thirteen American Weekly series fully restored, with the original newspaper captions. The magazine illustrations from his American contributions, as well as several original watercolors from Ann’s personal collection add context and enhance the collection. These illustrations represent the largest single body of watercolors in Edmund Dulac’s long career.
Watch a video about Edmund Dulac’s art.
In 1923, “Edmund Dulac, the Distinguished English Artist,”as he was billed on the front covers, was contracted by the Hearst organization to paint watercolors for The American Weekly magazine, the Sunday supplement for the newspapers. The contract lasted nearly 30 years. Dulac painted 106 watercolors from 1924-1951 for thirteen different series for The American Weekly. This is Dulac’s largest body of work, and has never before been assembled or published.
This collection includes all full color illustrations used for the front covers and several that were never published. All the images have been restored and printed with high quality inks.
Ann Conolly Hughey was Dulac’s bibliographer, and published her edition of his nearly 100 books in 1995. She wrote his history of publishing in America for inclusion in this volume. She was also a collector of Dulac’s books, paintings, drawings, stamps and correspondence, and has one of the most complete collections in the world.
About the Author: I am a lifelong fan of illustrated books and magazines and passed many pleasant hours collecting books and sharing information and images with fellow collectors and dealers. I was especially interested in the “Golden Age of Illustration” between 1875-1925. I was a strong collector of Edmund Dulac illustrated books, and was able to photograph the complete collection of his American Weekly illustrations from the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art owned by Bill Blackbeard. The collection is now housed at Ohio State University in the Billy Ireland Comic Art Museum.
The publishing business has changed considerably over the last 30 years and by taking advantage of digital technology I hope to publish many of his famous and lesser known illustrations in the coming months.
If you have suggestions for future Dulac titles or own original artwork you would like to have included in future editions please contact me. I am looking forward to working with other Dulac fans and collectors.
If anyone is wondering if I am the same author of The Sport Band System, indeed I am. Unfortunately, the Sport Bands are no longer being produced. After writing this instruction manual I spent my last years in the training profession at UCSF in the Dept. of Neurology. There I had the privilege of working with medical professionals and patients developing physical training rehabilitation programs for MS, stroke, PD, SCI and other neurological related maladies. I retired in 2008 and now I am enjoying my “Golden Years” working with the Dulac eBooks project.
Just so you know I’m not a ‘one trick pony’, I have a nice Arabian Nights non-Dulac survey that was released in December. There are around 50 English language illustrated editions from 1800-1950 of the 1001 tales and their Golden Age illustrators.
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