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Happy birthday to Charles Geer, born on this day in 1922.
Let’s talk about the MYSTERY IN REDTOP HILL. It is a Whitman Tween Age book by Marjory Schwalje and illustrations by Charles Geer. It is copyrighted 1965 by Whitman Publishing Company. I had no idea that the term “tween” had been around for over fifty years!
Nancy, Tod and Steve are the protagonists of this mystery. I’m sure it’s good, but I haven’t read it.
I found this at a thrift store in Laconia, NH. Like I said, Redtop, schmedtop. I didn’t care about the mystery or the children. I fell in love with the illustrations. They were careless, trusting and showed enormous life and skill.
Charles Geer (1922-2008), born on Long Island and educated at Dartmouth College, served in the United States Navy during World War II. Later, he attended Pratt.
He illustrated many books and enjoyed painting. He moved to Rockland, Maine, where he painted watercolors and enjoyed sailing. He even built a couple of boats. Sounds like a guy I’d like to hang out with!
These are some of his illustrations from THE MYSTERY AT REDTOP HILL. This is not even the half of them. And there are a good number of full-page fold-out illustrations. There is a lot of energy in these drawings and that made me a fan of Charles Geer.
Related:
Art by Charles Geer: THAT SUMMER WITH LEXY!
– This has been an edited version of an original blog post from March 18, 2015.