Howard Pyle was a prolific author, editor, and illustrator, remembered for his adaptations of the Robin Hood story and Arthurian legends. He was also influential as a teacher of illustration; former students such as early twentieth-century artists N. C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish recalled him as a demanding yet generous and devoted master. Through his skill and his tutelage Pyle was largely responsible for establishing a new standard of excellence in turn-of-the-century American graphic art.

Pyle was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on March 5, 1853, to William Pyle, the owner of a leather business, and Margaret Churchman Painter Pyle. He recalled in the April 1912 Women's Home Companion that his childhood was a "bright and happy" one during which his mother instilled in him a love of books and illustrations, reading to him from adventure stories such as Robinson Crusoe and other classics like Pilgrim's Progress, Grimm's Fairy Tales, and The...