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
that he absorbed the spirit and purpose of those hearty
Englishmen. And the illustrated, books continued to delight him. Barnaby Rudge, The Old Curiosity Shop, and
The Newcomes, read again and again, made a deep impression on his plastic mind and remained favorites during
the rest of his life.
When Howard was about fifteen or sixteen years old, his
parents decided that it would be best to send him to college.
Then there followed a weary time of preparation.
Through many hours of Latin and algebra he was joyously
uninterested. What did college mean to a youth who was
more anxious to learn how to get a certain shady effect in
the background of a pen-and-ink sketch, than he was in
knowing what Cicero said in support of the Manilian Law?
The parents struggled, and Howard remained unmoved
and unconvinced. Mrs. Pyle felt that college would not
harm his talent for drawing and that it might decidedly
improve his literary instincts. But the struggle was in vain.
She had to surrrender at last, and Howard was permitted
to go, on with his drawing and scribbling-doing, perhaps,
the very best thing for the strengthening of his imagination. Might not college have left an unfortunate and indelible sophistication on the mind that was to create the
Wonder Clock?
Study with one's self, no matter how excellent it may be
for a time, cannot go on forever without ending in a kind
of futility. This was the opinion of the Pyle family when
Howard had finally committed himself to a life of artistic
endeavor. The pecuniary circumstances of the family were
somewhat straitened at the time, and it was idle to dream
of sending the boy off to Europe to study with G&8ome in
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