Background
James Albert Wales was born in Clyde, Ohio, the son of William Washington and Martha (Dimm) Wales.
James Albert Wales was born in Clyde, Ohio, the son of William Washington and Martha (Dimm) Wales.
After attending school in Sandusky he went to Toledo to study wood engraving. Later he went to the engraving shop of Bogart & Stillman in Cincinnati, where he found another Ohio boy, William Allen Rogers, also trying to learn to draw.
He drew political cartoons on the presidential campaign of 1872 for the Cleveland Leader and in 1873 went to New York, where some of his early work was done for Wild Oats and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. In the fall of 1875, with Frank Hegger, the portrait photographer, he went to London. He drew for Judy, the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, and the London Illustrated News, tried for a position on the staff of Vanity Fair, and made a trip to Paris, where he spent most of his time studying the best drawings in the Louvre. On his return to New York he worked for Frank Leslie's for a time. In 1877 he joined the staff of the English edition of Puck, established by Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann. Beginning with Feburary 12, 1879, Wales started in Puck a series of full-page political portraits under the general title of "Puck's Pantheon. " Incisive, sardonic, they were well drawn and quite comparable to the best work being done. These drawings definitely established his reputation. Soon afterwards he was doing front and back covers and double-page spreads for Puck on social and political subjects. Characteristic examples are those on the Chinese question (March 12, 1879), "A Suggestion for the Next St. Paddy's Day Parade" (March 19, 1879), and "The Irish Idea of a 'Christian Burial' " (May 7, 1879). Less dramatically vindictive in political satire than Thomas Nast, but more of a realist than Keppler, he had a decided and recognized gift for portraiture. Rogers spoke enthusiastically of his work. When the Judge was started by W. J. Arkell, October 29, 1881, as a political rival to Puck, Wales took a prominent part in it, but in June 1885, becoming dissatisfied with the paper's policy, he returned to Puck. He died suddenly in his thirty-fifth year from a heart attack and was buried at Clyde.
He was tall and ruddy-faced, with a silky turned-up moustache and wore pince-nez.
On March 25, 1878, he married Claudia Marshall Cooper, a first cousin of Richard Harding Davis. They had two sons.
