THE AMERICAN WEEKLY COVERS OF EDMUND DULAC 1924-1951: 100Th Anniversary Edition

In 1924, English artist and Golden Age illustrator Edmund Dulac published his first series for the front covers of The American Weekly magazine, the Sunday supplement of the William Randolph Hearst newspaper chain. This 100th anniversary edition contains all the series with some of his other illustrations. They have been restored as well as possible, as many of the front covers had deteriorated over the years.

The American Weekly illustrations in this book were photographed from the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, which was owned and operated by Bill Blackbeard. After Bill’s passing in 2011, the entire collection was moved to The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University.

American Weekly Covers from 1924-1951:

1924- Bible Scenes and Heroes, 1925-  Characters From the Arabian Nights, 1929- Famous Vamps of History, 1931- Love Stories the Ancients Believed In, 1932- Enchanting Fairyland Lovers, 1933- Myths the Ancients Believed, 1934- Follies that Destroyed Famous Queens, 1936- Song of Solomon, 1937- Beauty and the Beast, 1938- Fighting Women, 1940- 7 Tales From King Arthur's Court, 1942-8 Canterbury Tales, and 1950-1951-Tales from the Arabian Nights.

Much has been written about Edmund Dulac’s mastery of art deco and design since his death in May of 1953. He was born in Toulouse, France in 1882 and was educated as a lawyer, although he rebelled and later studied art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He is best known as one of the giants of the ‘Golden Age of Illustration’ along with Arthur Rackham and Kay Nielsen. His beautiful watercolor book illustrations are still in print today, and the original first editions are scarce and highly valued. Out of Print. Condition: Very Fine. REVIEW by Albert Seligman 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 books) in 1995. 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 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 no one has ever republished them 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 20’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, who were partners in the Incredible Catalog, which Bud is still publishing today. Jim was planning to publish glossy magazines (Images) with Golden Age artists and had a small collection of American Weekly covers. (He wrote 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 Weeklies lying flat in his garage. Bill allowed us to remove the covers and have them professionally photographed. After Bill passed on 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 used to make the printing plates back in the days before digital photography. We contacted many publishers, but no one was interested in such a large full-color production. Reluctantly, we shelved the project, and Ann published her Dulac Bibliography in 1995. Thanks to the digital photography revolution, I was able to restore the illustrations and publish this edition, as well as The American Weekly Covers of Edmund Dulac 1924-1951 100th Anniversary Edition in 2024. That edition replicates the full magazine front cover. For the complete collection, only the first cover of each series is presented, to show how the covers changed over the different series. All the illustrations are cropped and restored, with the original newspaper captions. Ann contributed an introduction highlighting Dulac’s earliest American publications. It is gratifying for me to have finished this project after so many years, and I hope Dulac and Golden Age fans enjoy his largest single body of illustrations. ~Albert Seligman