Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

HOWARD PYLE: A CHRONICLE
A. B. Frost was not so far away but that he could come
to Wilmington occasionally to visit. The two of them
would go on sketching expeditions along the banks of the
Brandywine and among the rolling hills that lay to the
north and west. Those were peaceful days, days when the
gathering of impressions and knowledge were the allimportant events. As Mr. Frost says, "Through the period
of our intimacy nothing really happened-it was just a
cordial, humdrum friendship." But it kept Howard Pyle
in touch with a master of his craft, and to a certain extent
continued the influence which the "Olympians" of the New
York days had had on him.
At this time the chief subject in his head was history, and
how to adapt it to popular pictures and stories. He read
voluminously in Parkman and Bancroft and everybody else
who had written on American history; he talked with all the
old people who could tell him stories that they had heard
from their fathers and mothers concerning the Revolutionary War and the Colonial days. All this he absorbed
eagerly and remembered with remarkable tenacity. It was
definite and rigorous research; no detail was missed; and
all of it was of such a nature that he could use it in his
future work. Years later he could tell precisely how many
buttons a colonel in a Massachusetts regiment had on his
coat, or could give the exact color of the hat worn by
General Wolfe. He knew in what battles each regiment
had been engaged; he knew the definite line of march in
every campaign, and the spot where every battle had been
fought. A great enthusiasm carried him through this continual prying into musty volumes, and it was an enthusiasm.
that never dwindled.
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