John Held Jr., the illustrator of this book, was born in 1889. According to Nicholas Fox Weber, author of Patron Saints, Knopf, 1992, Held was a famous illustrator of the 20's (e.g. F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tales of the Jazz Age," 1922 who lost his monies in the Stock Market Crash and fell upon hard times in the 30's. He did the costume and set designs for the first ballet by the American Ballet Company of New York with wholly American subject matter, "Alma Mater," performed in 1934. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.