June 17, 2025 and 107 years ago on this day in 1918, artist Charles Edmund Monroe was born. He illustrated the covers for seven Tarzan novels reprinted by Grosset and Dunlap from 1948 through 1950. He didn’t do the illustration for “Tarzan and the Ant Men.”
The reprints were published in two formats, hardcovers with dust jackets for general release and hardcovers with printed boards for libraries.
C. E. Monroe was trained at the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art, Monroe created covers for Tarzan books, among many other magazine and commercial commissions. In 1994, he was honored by the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama for his wildlife and sporting art. He was originally a landscape artist, but moved on to portraits and book and magazine covers. His’s best known for his wildlife artwork.
Robert Barrett penned an excellent article about Monroe and the entire article is available at: https://www.erbzine.com/mag64/6415.html
The 100-word drabble for today is, “Wildlife,” a fictional conversation between Monroe and Grosset & Dunlap.
Artist Edmund Monroe talked to the cover designer for Grosset & Dunlap publishing. The designer said, “Ed, I love your landscape work and I’ve come to appreciate your portraits, but I envision that the new Tarzan covers will be action-filled.”
“I can draw action. I’ve done several magazine covers featuring wildlife. Nothing says action like a bird in flight or a predator on the prowl”
“With respect, I don’t see how that qualifies you to illustrate Tarzan.”
“With respect, Tarzan is the definition of wildlife and if you don’t know that he’s the apex predator, you haven’t read the books.”
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