Dave Tayler (book cover artist)
David Graham Tayler (21 February 1921 – 2 June 1985) was a British artist and commercial artist who specialised in book cover art in the 1950s and 60s. He was best known for his careful research and detailed accuracy in depiction.
1. Early life and war service
Tayler was born in Lancaster, the son of Edward Douglas Tayler, organist and professor of music.[1] The family moved to New Zealand in 1926 when E.D. Tayler took up the appointment of Supervisor & Director of Vocal Music in Schools.[2] In 1931 E.D. Tayler resigned this position. In 1932 he was at the University of California, Berkeley,[3] After E.D. Tayler’s untimely death at Berkeley in August 1932 Tayler returned to England with his mother.[4] In 1937 he enrolled at Wimbledon School of Art where by 1940 he completed a Teaching Diploma.[5] When war broke out in 1939 Tayler joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and served in the Home Guard.In 1940 he was called up into the RAF.[6]
2. 1950s and 60s
In 1946 he enrolled in the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and was awarded a diploma in 1948.[7] In 1955 while teaching at LeatherheadCountySecondary School, now Therfield School, Tayler illustrated his first book covers. Tayler illustrated covers for Corgi, Archer, Arrow, and Mayflower Press & Pan books, as well as hardback publishers such as Harrap, Rich & Cowan, and Herbert Jenkins.[8]
3. Methods
The subjects were varied and included Westerns, War (WWII and former wars), Biography, Crime, Travel, Natural History, Romance). Tayler signed his pictures with TAYLER in capitals, usually horizontally but occasionally vertically. Comment by Pat Owen, Pan cover artist: “There were some artists who could do anything, and they were obviously given anything to do. There were some who were better at some things than others but, beyond that it was really who was available, who could do something quickly. David Tayler, for example, I'm pretty sure I am right in saying he needed about a month, so what he was given had to be carefully sorted out and we wouldn't give him what we thought at the time was a trashy old book to do. He was given books worthy of his ability.”[9] The end of the 1960s, however, brought about a change in book cover illustration.Photographs were increasingly used and a style of painting which was less detailed and therefore more quickly completed became popular. Tayler was not the only artist to find he could no longer make a living through cover art. Tayler continued to paint while doing other work. He undertook commissions and exhibited his work locally.
4. Personal Life
In 1952 he married Delma Savell,[10] a former pupil of his at LeatherheadCountySecondary School.They lived in Dorking, Surrey, and had one child, John Mark.[11]
5. Final years
In 1979, aged 58, Tayler suffered a stroke. He died on 2 June 1985.His residence at that time was the Gower Peninsula near Llanrhidian [12]
==List of Books==
This is an incomplete list of book covers that Tayler illustrated:
| Author’s | name | Title | Publisher | Reference | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander | Michael | The Reluctant Legionnaire | Gt Pan | G141 | 1958 |
| Attenborough | David | Zoo Quest to Guyana | Gt Pan | G168 | 1958 |
| Attenborough | David | Zoo Quest for a Dragon | Gt Pan | G509 | 1961 |
| Baldwin | Monica | I Leap over the Wall | Pan Giant | X21 | 1960 |
| Bancroft | Tex | The Prairie Dusters | Herbert Jenkins | - | 1953 |
| Bassett | Ronald | The Carthaginian | Pan | X486 | 1966 |
| Braddon | Russell | The Naked Island | Pan | M | 1968 |
| Brand | Max | The Gun Tamerv | Pan | G434 | 1957 |
| Brome | Vincent | The Way Back | Pan | G289 | 1959 |
| Buchan | John | Salute to Adventurers | Pan | X247 | 1963 |
| Christie | Agatha | The Secret Adversary | Pan | 357 | 1955 |
| Christie | Agatha | The Murder on the Links | Pan | X241 | 1963 |
| Clifford | Francis | Overdue | Gt Pan | G275 | 1959 |
| Cook | W. Victor | Mr. Capricorn | Harrap | HB | 1954 |
| Cordell | Alexander | Rape of the Fair Country | Pan Giant | X73 | 1961 |
| Coulehan | Norbert | Quadrantus Rex | Gt Pan | G540 | 1962 |
| Eby | Cecil | The Siege of the Alcazar | Mayflower | 112102 | 1968 |
| Ferber | Edna | Cimarron | Pan Giant | X57 | 1960 |
| Fisher | Vardis | Pemmican | Pan Giant | X82 | 1961 |
| Fleming | Ian | The Diamond Smugglers | Pan | G328 | 1965 |
| Floren | Lee | These Rails Run West | Archer Press | - | --- |
| Ford | Robert | Captured in Tibet | Gt Pan | G164 | 1958 |
| Forester | C S | Lieutenant Hornblower | Gt Pan | GP72 | 1957 |
| Forester | C S | The Gun | Pan | G703 | 1965 |
| Forester | C S | Hornblower in the West Indies | Gt Pan | G382 | 1960 |
| Forester | C S | Brown on Resolution | Pan | G629 | 1963 |
| Forester | C S | Payment Deferred | Pan | G628 | 1963 |
| Forester | C S | Death to the French | Pan | G639 | 1963 |
| Frank | Pat | Alas Babylon | Pan Giant | X105 | 1961 |
| Fuller | J Overton | Double Agent | Gt Pan | G462 | 1961 |
| Goodman | Derek | Villainy Unlimited | Pan | G327 | - |
| Harris | A M | The Tall Man | Pan | G343 | - |
| Hendryx | James B | Sourdough Gold | Pan | G440 | 1958 |
| Highsmith | Patricia | The Talented Mr. Ripley | Gt Pan | G397 | 1960 |
| Hulme | Kathryn | The Wild Place | Gt Pan | G302 | 1959 |
| Lance | Chief Buffalo Child | Long Lance | Corgi | T145 | 1956 |
| Landon | Christopher | Stone Cold Dead in the Market | Gt Pan | G182 | 1958 |
| Landon | Christopher | A Flag in the City | Pan | GP100 | 1958 |
| Leasor | James | The Millionth Chance | Gt Pan | G399 | 1960 |
| Leslie | Doris | The Perfect Wife | Pan | X173 | 1963 |
| Lewis | Norman | A Dragon Apparent | Pan | X13 | 1957 |
| Lockridge | Ross Jr. | Raintree Countyv | Pan | X17 | 1958 |
| Macken | Walter | Seek the Fair Land | Pan Giant | X122 | 1962 |
| Marsh | & Anson | Skeleton Coast | Pan | G447 | 1961 |
| Maxwell | Gavin | God Protect me from my Friends | Gt Pan | X20 | 1958 |
| Miller | Merle | A Secret Understanding | Gt Pan | G242 | 1959 |
| Munsterhjelm | Erik | The Wind and the Caribou | Corgi | T136 | 1955 |
| Pape | Richard | Fortune is my Enemy | Gt Pan | G310 | 1960 |
| Pearce | Richard | The Restless Border | Corgi | 1239 | 1955 |
| Raine | Wm.McLeod | Glory Hole | Pan | - | - |
| Sabatini | Raphael | Captain Blood | Pan Giant | X99 | 1963 |
| Seligman | Adrian | No Stars to Guide | Gt Pan | G163 | 1958 |
| Short | Luke | Vengeance Valley | Corgi | 911 | - |
| Shute | Nevil | Lonely Road | Gt Pan | G554 | 1962 |
| Shute | Nevil | A Town Like Alice | Pan Giant | X96 | 1961 |
| Strandberg | Olle | Jambo | Gt Pan | G140 | 1958 |
| Wheatley | Dennis | Such Power is Dangerous | Arrow | 628 | 1964 |
| White | John Baker | Sabotage is Suspected | Gt Pan | G201 | 1959 |
| White | John Baker | The Big Lie | Pan | G121 | 1958 |
| Williams | Eric | Complete & Free | Pan | G230 | - |
| Wilson | Sloan | The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit | Gt Pan | G145 | 1960 |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ birth cert. GRO BXCF 970203
- ↑ Unpublished PhD thesis: S.P. Braatvedt, 'A History of Music Education In New Zealand State Primary and Intermediate Schools,1878-1989' University of Canterbury (2002) pp.413,438
- ↑ Register of University of California at Berkeley, Vol 2. p.7
- ↑ Probate & Letters Of Administration made in the Probate Registers of the High Court of Justice in England 1933 T-Z Page 16
- ↑ The magazine of The Pilgrims' School Winchester
- ↑ The magazine of The Pilgrims' School Winchester
- ↑ UCL Records Office
- ↑ http://www.leatherheadweb.org.uk/therfieldalumni
- ↑ Paperback, Pulp and Comic Collector Number 8 1991 Zeon Publishing
- ↑ marriage cert. GRO MXG 099585
- ↑ birth certificate. BXCG 684206
- ↑ death certificate QWBDXZ 108791
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