[On the occasion of the artist’s birthday]
The artist Gayle Hoskins did many covers for
Western Story Magazine, starting in 1929. One of the few positive things to emerge from the Great Depression was that many excellent cover artists were forced to do illustrations for pulp magazines as their incomes dropped. This led to improved quality in covers overall during the early 1930s, and provided good mentors like Emmett Watson to up and coming artists like Rudolph Belarski.
Hoskins did a series of 27 thematically related covers titled “A cowboy’s day” starting with the January 3, 1931 issue and ending with the July 4th issue. Of these covers, 20 were collected as a set of prints offered for sale by Street and Smith, the publisher of
Western Story. I don’t know why some of the covers were omitted, i included them here (taken from the FictionMags Index of
Western Story Magazine).
I got hold of a nearly complete set, missing only a single print. Thought you might want to see it. Tell me your favorites in the comments. Mine are 4, 14 and 20 in the printed set, and “Snake and his rustler band” from the unreprinted ones.
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| The Jan 3, 1931 issue introducing the series of covers titled “A Cowboy’s Day” by Gayle Hoskins |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #1 Dawn |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #2 Saddling Up |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #3 Trail Talk |
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Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #4 The morning buck
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – A message for Slim |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #5 Sound Again |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #6 Outlaws’ Smoke |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Slim spots rustlers |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Snake and his rustler band |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #7 Rustler’s Brand |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #8 The Rustler Shoots |
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Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #9 Pursued
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #10 Water |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #11 Bad News |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #12 “Chuck” |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #13 A Hot Trail |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #14 Reading Sign |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #15 Kidnaped |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #16 Posse |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Slim’s Girl in Snake’s Power |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #17 Picking ’em off |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #18 Devil’s Due |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – To safety with Slim |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #19 Round-Up |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Slim and Rita’s romance trail |
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| Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #20 Happy end of a cowboy’s day |
I have a set of the prints of A Cowboy's Day in the original mail wrappings and I've often wondered how they ever survived. Most of the prints were tacked up on walls and eventually thrown away but somehow a few sets remained carefully preserved.
My favorite print is the one showing the chuck wagon which was such an important part of the cowboy's life. Back when I could find cover paintings for a few hundred dollars I was once offered one of the original oil paintings in this series but the price was $5000 which was a lot more than I ever paid. I reluctantly had to turn it down.
Yes, these weren't really meant to survive, but I guess the circulation was wide enough that a few did.
Now tell us which painting you almost got.
It was number 14 Reading Sign. Actually the image did not impress me but Hoskins is one of the western painters that brings higher prices. 5k just seemed like too much especially since the highest I had paid at the time was only $700.
Hello. I recently came across a complete collection of these, with the original preface/backstory dust jacket. They are in immaculate condition save a couple bent corners. They were probably tucked in a drawer and didn't do much but get jostled around until recently. Do you have any idea what they are worth? This is the only reference to them I could find anywhere. Thanks in advance. -Lacey
Depends on condition, really. If you send me some photos, I can give you an idea. My email: pulpflakes AT gmail DOT com.