Looking for artwork by Elliott Dold turned up this remarkable set of illustrations for an unremarkable collection of poetry, Night, by a friend of the artist, Harold Hersey. Elliott Dold (1889–1957) was an American illustrator during the early days of the pulp magazines, best known today for drawings of huge machines which are a match for those by his more prolific contemporary, Frank R. Paul. The pulp magazines are so often filled with mediocre illustration that it’s a pleasure to find another talent lurking in their pages. But Dold was more than an illustrator of big science, as these illustrations for Hersey’s dubious poetry demonstrate.
Night is a collection of vaguely erotic poems, all of which Hersey labels “Nocturnes”. The collection was published in 1923 in a privately-printed subscriber-only edition, and every description I’ve read of it agrees that the illustrations are the best thing about it. The drawings are also radically different to Dold’s science-fiction art, to a degree that they could easily be taken for the work of a different illustrator. “What a pity the artist has to waste his time grinding out art for the pulps,” said HP Lovecraft, in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith. A pity, indeed. Dold’s illustrations are on a par with those that Wallace Smith was producing in the same year, and are close enough to Smith’s style that’s it’s tempting to accuse him of imitation. Smith’s style wasn’t unique, however; Ray Frederick Coyle was another American artist at work in the 1920s who favoured the same combination of strict black-and-white, careful linework and stylised figures. It’s curious that three books with somewhat controversial contents should have been published in the USA in 1922/23, all of them illustrated in a very similar manner: Ben Hecht’s Fantazius Malare (illustrated by Wallace Smith), James Branch Cabell’s new edition of Jurgen (illustrated by Ray Frederick Coyle), and Hersey’s Night. Rather than look for spurious influence I’d guess that this was a combination of coincidence and American literature acquiring a belated taste for Decadence which required suitably Beardsleyesque illustration. Similar trends were evident in cinema, especially in Alla Nazimova’s 1923 film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, where the costumes and settings were all based on Beardsley’s illustrations.
The images here are from a copy of the book at HathiTrust that’s another poor Google scan. The Hathi website isn’t as convenient for reading as the Internet Archive so I’ve downloaded all of the illustrations and, when necessary, cleaned the grey tone left by the scanner’s camera.
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A classic feuilleton post, with black and white illustrations from an obscure source. I love 1920s “belated decadence” artwork. This book might sit well with my similar books illustrated by Mahlon Blaine and Harry Clarke. Interestingly, the author, Hersey, far from hiding from this jazz-age artifact, reissued it twenty years later in 1943, apparently with the artwork intact: “only slightest changes have been made in this 2nd edition, Titles have been given to Poems & two of them transposed. Authors one idea was not to let the me of today tamper with the other man of yesterday.”
Thanks, Jim. I’m surprised it’s taken me so long to find this one, it’s the kind of book I’d immediately search for if I saw one of the illustrations anywhere. I ought to have mentioned Mahlon Blaine as another artist doing similar work in the 1920s.
Good to know that Hersey republished the book, that means a better copy may turn up eventually.
Was pleased to see your piece on Elliott Dold’s illustrations for Night. I have a copy of the book – the only problem is that the illustrations are too small. A bigger size is required to do them justice
Yes, in the 1920’s America did acquire a belated taste for the decadent. Along with Wallace Smith, Mahlon Blaine and Ray Frederick Coyle there were other American artists of note.
Donald Denton (Not been able to find any information on him so far) Just came across one short comment:
He was African American and apparently moved in rather bad circles. Very fine work – some influence of Harry Clarke, but a very distinctive style of his own. Illustrated books: Barbery D’Aurevilly: What Never Dies (1928) Honore De Balzac: The Girl With The Golden Eyes (1928) Pierre Louys: Aphrodite (1928)
Algernon Crofton: The Goats Hoof (1929) Pierre Louys: Songs Of Bilitis (1931)
Majeska (Madame Henriette Stern Majeska) At her best rather like Alastair in style.
Of note: Orthochromes (1930’s Set of 8 prints) Pierre Louys: Psyche (1928)
Nino Carbe: Frankenstein (1932) Very much in the style of Mahlon Blaine. Hope you find of interest.
Thanks, David, I’m always happy to receive further tips in this area of illustration. Nino Carbe I’ve known about for a while (having illustrated Frankenstein myself) but the others are new names. I think Alastair is also a part of the late Decadence trend even though he wasn’t American. Harry Crosby was certainly behaving in a Decadent manner when he was commissioning Alastair to illustrate his books.