Out-of-print.

Robert Fawcett: The Illustrator's Illustrator is the very first book essaying the life, career and impact of this complex, even contradictory artist.

This volume features nearly 250 images, the majority of them presented in full color. It also includes various sketches and preliminary studies, as well as all of Fawcett's illustrations featuring Sherlock Holmes.

These are accompanied throughout by the insightful and nuanced commentary of David Apatoff, the foremost living authority on Fawcett's work, along with an introduction by Walt Reed, founder of Illustration House, Inc. and a personal friend of the artist.

Robert Fawcett was perhaps the most popular and celebrated commercial artist of his generation, a craftsman whose work was so highly regarded that he was crowned "the illustrator's illustrator."

An avowed socialist who fled a successful career as a fine artist in his youth, Fawcett proved to be a natural businessman whose services were sought after by the most prestigious and highest-paying magazines of his day, including Collier's Weekly, Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post.

He also wrote On the Art of Drawing, a work of such vitality and lasting worth that it remains in print to this day, while in his roles as a lecturer and an original faculty member of the Famous Artists School, Fawcett proved to be a speaker and teacher whose influence upon his both peers and innumerable students cannot be underestimated.

Fawcett accomplished that and much, much more--all despite the fact that he had received but two years of formal training in his chosen profession. And yet this Promethean talent has never before been the subject of a lengthy investigation… until now.

This came from the library of Burny Mattinson (1935-2023), an animator, director, producer, and story artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios, from 1953 until his death in 2023. Mattinson directed Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Great Mouse Detective. He was named a Disney Legend in 2008 and was the longest serving employee of The Walt Disney Company, with a career that spanned almost 70 years. His extensive library included numerous subjects and especially large collections of books on Disney, animation, and classic comic strips.