Tom Lea (TX, 1907-2001), Original Illustration for Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver, With Two TLS

Ink on paper, 1938, inscribed to his friend Tilghman R. Cloud, signed and dated "Tom Lea - El Paso Texas - 1939" at lower edge; matted and framed. Accompanied by the first English edition of J. Frank Dobie's Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver (London: Hammond, Hammond & Company 1956), illustrated by Lea and with the featured work making its appearance in print on p. 235; along with (2) typed letters on the artist's El Paso, Texas letterhead, each addressed to his friend Tilghman Cloud in Pleasant Hill, Missouri and signed by the artist, one dated 1950 and the other 1953.

Lea's work in both the visual and literary arts is referenced in one of his letters: "I'm most grateful to you for your kind words concerning my first attempt at a novel. Gathering the material for it was all fun; actually writing it was all agony. Now I'm half horse and half alligator, trying to paint and to write both."

Thomas C. Lea III was an illustrator, muralist, and novelist from El Paso, Texas. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and afterwards trained with a muralist in the city. Like many other artists during the Great Depression, he worked for the government creating murals, including one for a post office in Pleasant Hill, Missouri. He began working as an illustrator in the late 1930s, including partnering with J. Frank Dobie for two of his books. During World War II he worked as a war correspondent, and after returning from the war he wrote and illustrated his own novels, The Brave Bulls and The Wonderful Country, both of which were made into films. The filming of the former, as well as his mural in Pleasant Hill, are both discussed briefly in his letter from 1950.

Drawing with a couple of negligible spots; matte with one faint mark; frame with very light wear; not examined out of frame. Book with light wear to board extremities; some light scattered spotting and faint marks mostly at the edges; jacket with light spotting and rubbing, grime, and edge wear including chipping, small loss at head of spine, and two small taped repairs; a very good copy in like jacket. Letters in lovely condition with expected folds from mailing, very mild edge wear, and one with light creasing and spotting.