During the Golden Age of American Illustration when work by such distinguished artists as Charles Dana Gibson, Howard Pyle, and Maxfield Parrish graced many of the nation's books and periodicals, one of the most original of the country's designers was Peter Newell. An illustrator of Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, and Lewis Carroll, Newell was famous for his gentle cartoons in rich, velvety flat tones which enlivened the Harper's family of magazines--the Monthly, the Weekly, Harper's Bazar, Harper's Young People--and other national publications. However, perhaps his most enduring work was that for children: in particular The Hole Book, The Slant Book, and other novelty picture books which he both wrote and illustrated.

Peter Sheaf Hersey Newell was born on 5 March 1862, in the Midwest backwoods, the last of four children of George Frederick Newell, a wag-on-maker, and Louisa N. Newell. "I broke out," he later recalled, "the same time...