Elton Clay Fax (October 9, 1909 – May 13, 1993) was an American illustrator, cartoonist, and writer.

Early life and education

Elton Clay Fax was born in 1909, in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Mark Oakland Fax and Willie Estelle Fax. His father was a stevedore at the Baltimore Railroad Depot; his mother was a seamstress. Elton Fax graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1926, where he was classmates with Cab Calloway, who became a noted musician.

Fax first attended Claflin College, a historically black college in Orangeburg, South Carolina, but transferred north to Syracuse University in New York state. There he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1931. Soon after college he was featured in a solo art show at the offices of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper.[1][2]

Career

Elton Fax taught art at the Harlem Community Art Center in New York beginning in 1934. He also worked with the Works Project Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project, a government financial assistance program for artists during the Great Depression. Fax was an illustrator for magazines such as Weird Tales, Astounding Science-Fiction, Complete Cowboy, Real Western, Story Parade, Child Life, and All Sports.

In 1942 he began a newspaper comic named Susabelle,[3] and later an illustrated history panel, They'll Never Die; both were carried in African-American newspapers. He also created greeting card illustrations for The Links.[4]

During the 1940s Fax worked for several comic companies as a cartoonist, including Continental Features Syndicate, a group that sold comic books throughout black communities. Some other companies he worked for as a cartoonist included Funnies Inc., Quality Comics, and Novelty Comics.

Books written and illustrated by Fax include West African Vignettes (1960),[5][6] Contemporary Black Leaders (1970), Seventeen Black Artists (1972), Garvey (1972, a biography of Marcus Garvey),[7] Through Black Eyes: Journeys of a Black Artist to East Africa and Russia (1974), Black Artists of the New Generation (1977), and Hashar (1980).[8]

In addition, Fax illustrated books by such children's authors as Georgene Faulkner[9] and Verna Aardema.[10][11] He also created dust jacket art for various publishers, as well as a literacy pamphlet for the Pan American Union.[12] Books illustrated by Fax include Paul Cuffee: America's first black captain (1970), by Johanna Johnston, and Take a walk in their shoes (1989), by Glennette Turner.

From 1949 to 1956, Fax was a "chalk talk artist" with the New York Times Children's Book Program.As he presented stories to children's groups, he also spontaneously illustrated them.[13]

Fax was sponsored by the US State Department for travel in Latin America in 1955, and a period as a lecturer in East Africa in 1963. After living in Mexico and traveling through Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay, Fax wrote in his article, "It's Been a Beautiful but Rugged Journey," about feeling concerned after the United States Embassy asked him if he had seen any "communist activity".[citation needed]

While in East Africa in 1963, he also he toured Nigeria with jazz musician Randy Weston, sponsored by the American Society of African Culture.[14] He was one of fourteen representatives of the American Society for African Culture at an international writers' meeting in Rome in 1959. He reported from the meeting for the New York Age.[15][16]

After his visit to Rome, Fax toured Africa, visiting such countries as Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia. He drew from these trips for sketches published in his first book, West African Vignettes.[citation needed] Fax's drawings were also used in the USIA film series Adventure Africa. Fax returned to Europe for the Soviet Writers' Union meetings in 1971 and 1973, and the Bulgarian Writers' Conference in 1977. Sue Bailey Thurman donated works by Elton Fax to the "Heritage Hall" at Livingstone College in 1973.[17]

Fax was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in 1968. He received a Rockefeller Foundation Research Grant in 1976 to travel to Italy. Other awards included the Coretta Scott King Award from the American Library Association (1972)[18] and the Chancellor's Medal from Syracuse University in 1990.[19]

Personal life and legacy

In 1929, Elton Fax married Grace Elizabeth Turner. They had three children together. The Fax family lived in Mexico for several years in the 1950s,[20] and traveled widely.[21] He married as his second wife Elizabeth V. Murrell, a social worker.[22] Elton Fax died in 1993, age 83, in Queens, New York.

Fax was the older brother of music scholar Mark Fax.

The papers of Elton Fax are at the New York Public Library, Boston University, and Syracuse University.[23][24][25]

Works

References

  1. ^ "Baltimore Painter's Work Shocks Conservative Baltimore Critics" Afro-American (April 23, 1932): 3.
  2. ^ "Civilization Hasn't Helped Negro Art" Afro-American (April 16, 1932): 21.
  3. ^ Steven Loring Jones, "From 'Under Cork' to Overcoming: Black Images in the Comics" Archived 2014-10-14 at the Wayback Machine Ferris State University, Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia.
  4. ^ "Elton Fax Designs Links Cards", New York Amsterdam News (September 29, 1962): 13.
  5. ^ Elton C. Fax, West African Vignettes (American Society of African Culture 1960).
  6. ^ "Books Noted" Black World/Negro Digest (August 1963): 51.
  7. ^ Elton C. Fax, Garvey: The Story of a Pioneer Black Nationalist (Dodd Mead and Company 1972).
  8. ^ Elton C. Fax, Hashar (Progress Publishers 1980).
  9. ^ Minnie W. Koblitz, The Negro in Schoolroom Literature (Center for Urban Education 1969): 15.
  10. ^ "Mr. Pages" Corpus Christi Caller-Times (June 12, 1960): 22. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  11. ^ Roy Toothaker, "Verna Aardema: Her Wondrous Tales Fall on Willing Ears," Language Arts 56(2)(February 1979): 190-193.
  12. ^ "He Designs Book Covers", The Afro American (October 2, 1954): 16.
  13. ^ Sandra L. West, "Elton Fax", in Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Infobase Publishing 2003): 111. ISBN 9781438130170
  14. ^ "Made Whirlwind Trip to Africa" New York Amsterdam News (July 27, 1963): 16.
  15. ^ "14 from US Attend Rome Writers' Meet" Afro-American (April 4, 1959): 15.
  16. ^ "Elton Fax on a Long Writers' Conference" New York Age (April 18, 1959): 4. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  17. ^ "Bishop Walls' $75,000 Funds Livingstone Center" ThAfro American (June 26, 1973).
  18. ^ Henrietta M. Smith, The Coretta Scott King Awards, 1970-2009 (American Library Association 2014): 40. ISBN 9780838997253
  19. ^ "People" Jet (March 19, 1990): 20.
  20. ^ Toki Johnson, "Mexican Holiday: Profile of an Artist, Elton Fax and Grace" Pittsburgh Courier (September 8, 1956): 15. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  21. ^ Ida Peters, "Black History Feature: Elton Clay Fax" Afro-American (February 16, 1980): 11.
  22. ^ "Elizabeth Murrell-Fax, a Social Worker" New York Times (October 5, 1989).
  23. ^ Elton C. Fax Papers, New York Public Library Archives & Manuscripts.
  24. ^ Elton C. Fax Collection, Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center.
  25. ^ Elton Fax Collection, Syracuse University Libraries.

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