Frank
Schoonover was born
in New Jersey, USA, in 1877. He studied at the Drexel
Institute with Maxfield
Parrish under
Howard
Pyle (1896-1900).
Pyle was impressed with Schoonover and got him work illustrating the
books A Jersey Boy of the Revolution
(1899) and In the Hands of the Red Coats
(1899).
Schoonover
developed a reputation for illustrating adventure stories. This included
In The Open, The
Edge of the Wilderness, The Deliverance
and Breaking Trail for Scribner's
Magazine. He was also a regular contributor
to Harper's
Weekly and
McClure's
Magazine.
Other
books illustrated by Schoonover include A
Princess of Mars (1917), Cortes
the Conqueror (1917) Arctic Stowaways
(1917), Tales of Shakespeare (1918),
Joan of Arc (1918), Kidnapped
(1921), Robin Hood (1921), Robinson
Crusoe (1921), Treasure Island
(1922), King Arthur and His Knights
(1923), Ivanhoe (1925), Questers
of the Desert (1925) and Boy Captives
of Old Deerfield (1929).
In
1931 Schoonover established the School of Illustration in Indianapolis
but after 1937 concentrated on easel painting. He also started another
art school in Wilmington in 1942 that he ran until suffering a stroke
in 1968.
