Al Parker: Illustrator, Innovator

The latest volume in our series highlighting the great American illustrators. This lavishly illustrated book covers every aspect of this important artist’s career with authoritative articles, hundreds of incredible full color illustrations and rarely seen photographs.

One of America’s best known magazine illustrators from the 1940’s to the 1960’s, Al Parker was an innovator, a trend setter and a constant experimenter. Each chapter describes his top work for every key American magazine, from fiction illustrations to advertising to covers.

He was the go-to artist in all the early “slicks,†the highest peak a commercial artist could attain in his day. Colliers, Ladie’s Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, McCall’s. And in genre pieces: Grand Prize Automobiles, Jazz, and the series Jane’s Blanket, plus Kit Parker films. A chapter captures his wonderful photography, “From Models to Print†using beautiful models as well as himself and his family.

A 1964 interview captures his thoughts at the peak of his career. His niece talks about growing up with “Uncle Al†in Carmel Valley, California. Stephenie Plunkett writes about about “Al Parker and the American Woman’s Magazine, 1940-60.†David Apatoff writes about Parker’s ability to change styles “as effortlessly as you or I might change socks.†In 1948, Norman Rockwell wrote Al a fan letter: “It is simply extraordinary; your amazing creativeness, taste, and versatility. While the rest of us are working knee-deep in a groove, [you] are forever changing and improving. You have brought more freshness, charm, and vitality to illustration than any other living illustrator.â€