Henry Bugbee Kane 1902 - 1971 illustrator and photographer, prolific author and illustrator of Natural History Classics about the American Landscape. He seems oddly determined to take the subject matter that little bit further, as if too unconfident of his powers to tell a simple story. At times he is too tricksy, at times effective on the page. There is a Henry Kane Award at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of which he was an alumni. In a short and pithy auobiographical statement (Illustrator of Children's Books 1946-1956 Horn Book Boston 1958), he attests to his love and practice of drawing and the need to make his living as lighting engineer, kitchen designer, in advertising, promotion, public relations and then flying for the US Navy. He seems to have had no formal art training other than cartoons for the MIT student magazine. "It has all been very haphazard." At the time of writing he was then living in Lincoln Massachusetts. |