Last summer Cecilia put together a great post on the yearbooks of Manual Training High School (once John Jay and now the Secondary School for Law, Journalism, and Research) and, due to a patron request, I had cause to retrieve the boxes housing these books from the morgue once again. I'm happy I did. Along with the Prospect yearbooks, Manual Training also produced a "Literary-Art Issue" of the Prospect, and therein I found a number of striking drawings which serve to illustrate stories, poems, and scripts. Without too much commentary, I figured I'd post some of my favorites along with the titles of the pieces they were meant to illustrate. The pairings can be alternately funny, evocative, confusing, meaningless or just plain dull, but they somehow add up to provide a picture of Brooklyn teen life -- well, if not quite life -- at least the styles and stories that preoccupied some Brooklyn teens from 1936-1948.
The covers of the Prospect were often punchy, graphic affairs. This one from 1942 was drawn by George Olesen, who worked as Art Editor for the issue and whose drawings, usually of beefy blockheads, illustrate a number of the stories. And if you're wondering what happened to this talented artist, it looks like he made a career of it.
Footsteps
Drawing by George Olesen
We Were Laughing
Drawing by George Olesen
He Walks With Music
Drawing by George Olesen
Life of a Leaf
Drawing by Rosalie Goldstone
Concerning Manners
Drawing by Olga Samios
Hunted
Drawing by Jessie Egan
"Ridiculous!" He Replied
Drawing by Florence Cambrini
The Sunken City
Drawing by George Ahlman
My Life as a Poet
Drawing by Joseph DiFronzo
Dear Butch
Drawing by Veronica Campbell
Incident of Jonathan Beaverson
Drawing by Jessie Egan
I Visited the Moon
Drawing by Betsy Daniels
Happiness and Contentment
Drawing by David Manzella
And So I Ran Away
Drawing by Elaine Fortune
To My Dad
Drawing by Jospeh DiFronzo
The Canary and the Cat
Drawing by "SGRO"
Hurricane
Drawing by Wally Huber
The Promised Land
Artist unknown
I could go on posting these all day, but with other things to do I better heed the advice of one of the Prospect's poets and quit.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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