Gayle Hoskins – prints from “A Cowboy’s Day” series of covers

[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.

The Jan 3, 1931 issue introducing the series of covers titled “A Cowboy’s Day”  by Gayle Hoskins
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #1 Dawn
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #1 Dawn

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #2 Saddling Up
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #2 Saddling Up

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #3 Trail Talk
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #3 Trail Talk

Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #4 The morning buck
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day - A message for Slim
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – A message for Slim
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #5 Sound Again
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #5 Sound Again 
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #6 Outlaws' Smoke
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #6 Outlaws’ Smoke

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day - Slim spots rustlers
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Slim spots rustlers

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day - Snake and his rustler band
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Snake and his rustler band
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #7 Rustler's Brand
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #7 Rustler’s Brand

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #8 The Rustler Shoots
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #8 The Rustler Shoots

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #9 Pursued
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #9 Pursued

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #10 Water
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #10 Water
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #11 Bad News
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #11 Bad News

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #12 "Chuck"
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #12 “Chuck”

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #13 A Hot Trail
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #13 A Hot Trail

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #14 Reading Sign
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #14 Reading Sign

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #15 Kidnaped
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #15 Kidnaped

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #16 Posse
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #16 Posse

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day - Slim's Girl in Snake's Power
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Slim’s Girl in Snake’s Power

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #17 Picking 'em off
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #17 Picking ’em off

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #18 Devil's Due
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #18 Devil’s Due
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day - To safety with Slim
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – To safety with Slim

Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day #19 Round-Up
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #19 Round-Up
Gayle Hoskins - A Cowboy's Day - Slim and Rita's romance trail
Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day – Slim and Rita’s romance trail

Gayle Hoskins – A Cowboy’s Day #20 Happy end of a cowboy’s day

5 comments

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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

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