Earl Mayan (1916December 12, 2009) was an American illustrator whose early career spanned the era of

pulp magazines Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

to the post World War II years alongside Norman Rockwell at ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

''. From 1954 to 1961, he painted ten ''Saturday Evening Post'' covers and illustrated many of the stories that appeared as inside the magazine. Chris Mullen, creator of the website The Visual Telling of Stories, wrote of Mayan's art, "He managed great visual invention, possessed excellent powers of drawing, and entertained his readers with an inventive set of references within the images."

From Pratt to pulps

Mayan graduated from the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

in Brooklyn, New York City in 1936. He majored in illustration alongside

Edd Cartier Edward Daniel Cartier (August 1, 1914 – December 25, 2008), known professionally as Edd Cartier, was an American pulp magazine illustrator who specialized in science fiction and fantasy art. Born in North Bergen, New Jersey, Cartier studied at ...

. Upon graduation, one of Pratt's instructors, a

Street & Smith Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among t ...

art editor encouraged both graduates to enter the field of pulp illustration. Mayan illustrated ''The Shadow'' until he joined the army (1941–1945). After the war, his illustrations appeared often in "The Saturday Evening Post" and the "

Reader's Digest Condensed Books ''Reader's Digest Condensed Books'' was a series of hardcover anthology collections, published by the American general interest monthly family magazine ''Reader's Digest'' and distributed by direct mail. Most volumes contained five (although a c ...

". Mayan also worked for Grosset & Dunlap, Argosy, Bantam Books and Random House. A portrait of

César Chávez Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged ...

by Earl Mayan is in the National Portrait Gallery,

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, Washington, D.C. From 1962 to 1995, Mayan taught drawing and illustration at the Art Student's League of New York. Earl Mayan died in Huntington, Long Island, New York on December 12, 2009.

References

External links

* http://www.pulpartists.com/Mayan.html * http://www.fulltable.com/vts/m/myn/MY.htm * http://www.earlmayan99.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayan, Earl 2009 deaths American illustrators 1916 births