V.E. Pyles's original illustration of the Major's story, The Road Without Turning. Virgil
Evans Pyles was born in 1891 in La Grange, Kentucky, the son of William Yancey
and Susan Evans Pyles, farmers in Henry County. According to his family he
developed an awareness of nature and God from rising early to milk the cows,
and observing the sunrises. When Virgil was ten years old, his mother died and
he and his older brother Vernon were sent to live with aunts in
Louisville. He and his brother studied art with Virgil attending The Art
Student's League of New York as well as The School of the Art Institute of
Chicago.
Pyles is mostly known as
an illustrator of pulp fiction. His work can be found on the interiors and covers of
Argosy, American
Legion and Adventure magazines. His specialty
in this genre was the human
figure but he also painted landscapes, city and seascapes working in both oil
and watercolor. He died in New York City in 1963 at age 72. Thanks to the V.E. Pyles Estate for bio material, use of photo
and illustration.
