Background
Kane was a self-taught artist who was born in Philadelphia in 1912.
Kane was a self-taught artist who was born in Philadelphia in 1912.
He was extremely knowledgeable about art history and contemporary art and his thirst to better his skills led him to books by Howard Pyle and North Carolina Wyeth, which he studied closely.
Primarily known for his work on the children"s books, "The Three Investigators", he had a career that spanned over 50 years, doing work on paperback covers, advertising art, men"s adventure magazines, movie posters and much more. When he was younger he would go to the zoo and draw animals. Kane"s career began during the great depression when he and a few of his artist friends left Philadelphia for New York City.
lieutenant was difficult to find employment during this time.
However, Kane"s talent was getting noticed and around 1930 and eventually opened the door to Street & Smith. One of his first paying jobs, drawing for Western Story Magazine.
When World World War II began and Kane was drafted and sent to Hawaii to be a map maker. Eugene would spend much of his life in an institution.
As Kane was stationed in Hawaii, Minna was left to raise Eugene on her own.
She petitioned the army to release Kane early to help with Eugene but to no avail. The war ended in 1945 and Kane returned home. When Harry returned from the war he found his job was no longer waiting for him, so he began taking freelance jobs.
He did work for Seagrams, Schlitz beer, Calso Gasoline Company, Phillip Morris and much more.
In the mid-1960s Random House hired Harry to work on a new set of children's books called Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators. Harry worked on most of the covers and interiors of the first 16 books and the series proved to be very popular selling millions of copies.
In the 1980s Kane was semi-retired and living quietly until poor health forced Kane to move to a nursing home. Kane died of an aneurism in March 1988.