Coggins, Jack
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Artist.
(1911-2006) US illustrator of many subjects. Born in London of UK parents, he moved with his family as a child to Long Island. In due course he attended the Grand Central School of Art and the Art Students League, both in New York. During World War Two he was a war artist for Life magazine and others including Yank, The Army Weekly; from this was born the first of several collaborations with Fletcher Pratt, Fighting Ships of the U.S. Navy (graph 1941). He illustrated and cowrote with Pratt three books of futuristic science during the 1950s: Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles and Space Ships (graph 1951), By Space Ship to the Moon (graph 1952; rev 1958) and Rockets, Satellites and Space Travel (graph 1958), and also illustrated Pratt's All About Rockets and Jets (children's graph 1958). Of the numerous other books he illustrated during the 1940s-1960s, several more were in this same vein, the last being Michael Chester's Let's Go on a Space Trip (children's graph 1963).
During the 1950s he painted a number of covers for Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Science Fiction Quarterly and others, as well as the covers for Robert Sheckley's Untouched by Human Hands (coll 1954) and for S-F Yearbook #1 (anth 1967) (see Treasury of Great Science Fiction Stories). After the 1960s, he seems to have done little illustration, focusing instead on teaching and his own painting; he frequently exhibited in tandem with his wife, Alma Wood (1948-2007). He was inducted to the International Association of Astronomical Artists Hall of Fame in 2000. [JGr]
Jack Banham Coggins
born London: 10 July 1911
died Pike Township, Pennsylvania: 30 January 2006
works (highly selected)
- Rockets, Jets, Guided Missiles and Space Ships (New York: Random House, 1951) with Fletcher Pratt, foreword by Willy Ley [chap: graph: hb/Jack Coggins]
- By Space Ship to the Moon (New York: Random House, 1952) with Fletcher Pratt, introduction by Willy Ley [chap: graph: hb/Jack Coggins]
- By Space Ship to the Moon (New York: Random House, 1958) with Fletcher Pratt [nonfiction: rev of the above: illus/hb/Jack Coggins]
- Rockets, Satellites and Space Travel (New York: Random House, 1958) with Fletcher Pratt [chap: graph: edited by Willy Ley: hb/Jack Coggins]
links
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