EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 11 © 2015 The Book Palace (96 pages PAGES in Full edition)

60 James McConnell David Ashford examines the work of an artist whose work brought a spicy US pulp ruggedness to the covers of UK publishing If there is one British book cover artist who can convincingly be compared with the best of the American pulp illustrators of the 1940s and ‘50s, it is James E. McConnell. Together with his near contemporary, Denis McLoughlin (see illustrators 1 and The Art of Denis McLoughlin ), McConnell was one of this country’s most prolific book cover artists. However, whereas McLoughlin worked almost exclusively for one publisher, T. V. Boardman , McConnell seemed to work for practically every book publisher in the U.K. Certainly James E. McConnell could be said to be one of Britain’s most ubiquitous and successful book cover artists of all time. James Edwin McConnell was born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, on 15 July 1901. From an early age he loved drawing and exhibited a strong visual ABOVE LEFT: Classic McConnell painting from the cover to 'The Seven Men at Mimbras Springs', published by Corgi Book s 1960. Ever the pragmatist, McConnell has added the crest of a stetson behind the main figure's right shoulder and the rim of another behind the left arm to fulfil the Art Director's brief. Courtesy of the Illustration Art Gallery