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
amount of original work himself, yet he could see sufficiently well to be of inestimable service to those pupils who
were placed with him. With all the advantages of a European training, with a full knowledge of the most accepted
technique, he combined a real teaching skill, making every
effort to cultivate and improve the imaginations of the
young men who were in his class. But it was a stiff course
of study that he prescribed; it was hard, almost neverending work. There was slight opportunity for dreaming
or building castles in the air. He was always there, always vigorously insisting upon a close attention to the
matter in hand, and the consequence was that his pupilsat least one -of them-thought at the time that such work
was drudgery. The taskmaster, however, was too efficient
to allow such feelings to interfere with the regular routine.
He kept them busily at their sketching and painting, and
succeeded magnificently in giving them a technique.
Howard continued his Philadelphia trips for three years,
duringr which time he gathered a great deal of knowledge
from the persistent teaching of Mr. Van der Weilen. This
was the only systematic training that he ever had, for his
later work at the Art Students' League was certainly too
disconnected to be of the greatest yalue.
The Wilmington life went on. Sketching and scribbling
could be done in the spare hours when there was nothing
to do for Mr. Van der Weilen. And yet with it all Howard
found time to help his father in the leather business which
was not prospering too well in those panic-ridden early
'seventies. Mrs. Pyle continued to encourage her son, giving
him the whole sympathy and power of her ardent spirit,
never for a moment losing sight of the ambition which she
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