I was doing a quick Google search of things related to Andrew Loomis a little earlier today when I came upon this site – loaded with biographies of some of the world’s greatest illustrators of the last 125 years:

http://www.bpib.com/illustra.htm#illustopage

Some of my personal favorites: Winsor McCay, Heinrich Kley, Harvey Dunn, Franklin Booth, Wally Wood, Joseph Leyendecker, Willy Pogany – both pages, Frank Schoonover, Arthur Rackham, Maxfield Parrish, and many many more. These were the guys that knocked the wind out of me as a teen-ager, looking at their work in books at the Richardson Public Library back in Texas. These guys (with the exception of Wally Wood in my list) were superstars of the early days of the last century, back when people read monthly fiction magazines; back when advertising was illustrated not just photographed.

The site is part of Bud Plant’s on-line store. Bud Plant’s booth at the San Diego Comic Con is one of the reasons I go every year. They have a terrific selection of hard-to-find and plain-old-interesting stuff there.