Gertrude Huston
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Artist
- illustrator
Gertrude Huston | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1919 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | August 26, 1998 (aged 78–79) Norfolk, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Parsons School of Design |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Designing book covers for New Directions Publishing |
| Spouse | |
Gertrude Huston (1919 – August 26, 1998)[1] was an American artist and illustrator[2] known for designing book covers for New Directions.
Gertrude Huston was born in New York City in 1919[1] and grew up in New York and Wilton, Connecticut.[3]
Huston graduated from Parsons School of Design.[3][4]
Career
Huston worked at the Helena Rubinstein salon in New York. After a tenure at Lucien Long in Chicago, Huston returned to New York City to work at Blaker Advertising Agency.[3] Huston was also a contract employee at the Ford Foundation.[4]
Huston began designing books for New Directions on a freelance basis. She designed books for the publishing company from the late 1940s through the late 1970s.[1] She also served as Art Director of New Directions.[3]
In his book "Literchoor Is My Beat": A Life of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions, Ian S. MacNiven describes Huston's book design style:
"Her covers suggested the influence of Alvin Lustig but tended more toward the whimsical: for the second printing of Thomas's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, she made a line drawing of a show-clipped French poodle, anglicized with a pipe and derby, sitting at a typewriter. It was humorous, but it certainly was not Dylan."[4]
Huston ended her regular work with New Directions in 1978, after a clash with Dan Allman — then head of book design — over the design of H.D.'s End to Torment: A Memoir of Ezra Pound. She continued to design book covers for the publishing company only occasionally afterwards.[4]
Outside of her book design work, Huston served as the secretary of Community Board No. 5 in Manhattan. She was active at the Midtown South Police Precinct Community Council and Encore Community Services at St. Malachy's Church.[3] She served as president of the Rose Hill Neighborhood Association.[5] A fan of jazz music, Huston was a member of the Duke Ellington Society, and lobbied to have Ellington formally memorialized in New York City.[3][2]
Selected New Directions books designed by Huston
- The Blood Oranges by John Hawkes[6]
- The Selected Poems of Irving Layton[7]
- Sun Rock Man by Cid Corman[8]
- Arrival: Book 1 of Daily Lives in Aghsi-Altai by Robert Nichols[9]
- The Delights of Turkey: Twenty Tales by Edouard Roditi[9]
- The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton by Thomas Merton[9]
- The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton[9]
- A Dark Stranger by Julien Gracq[10]
- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (second ed.) by Dylan Thomas[4]
Other books designed by Huston
- In Another Country by James Laughlin[4]
Personal life
Huston lost a husband in World War Two. Huston met New Directions founder James Laughlin at a Halloween dance party in 1945.[4] The pair maintained an affair through both of Laughlin's earlier marriages, though they married on December 5, 1990.[1]
