John Alcorn, Art ’55
John Alcorn was born on February 10, 1935 on Long Island in New York and moved to New York City in 1955. He passed away on January 27, 1992. John was a commercial artist and designer, and an illustrator of children’s books. He studied graphic arts for three years at Cooper Union. He worked for Forbes Magazine and for Push Pin Studio. He also worked for CBS for one year (1958). He left CBS to pursue a career freelancing. In 1962, John Alcorn designed and illustrated Books, a book designed for children and authored by Murray McCain, which celebrates the importance of books in our everyday lives. John illustrated multiple books including:
- Scratch Built!: A Celebration of the Static Scale Airplane Modellers Craft
- Books! by Murray McCain, John Alcorn, Murray McCain
- Flying Without Wings by John Alcorn
Alcorn designed the opening titles for several Federico Fellini films. During his career, Alcorn created numerous book jackets and paperback covers, and his work appeared in many major exhibits. He was a participant in the Push Pin Studios Retrospective Show at the Louvre in Paris during March 1970.
John Alcorn has received awards from the New York Art Directors Club, the New York Type Directors Club, and the Society of Illustrators. He received the first prize at the 1968 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. In 1970, he was presented the Cooper Union Alumni Association Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award. He was inducted into the Cooper Union Hall of Fame in 2009.
References:
Third Book of Junior Authors; Junior Authors Electronic (1972) Copyright (c) by The H. W. Wilson Company. Updated 1999.
Links for Additional Information:
- http://www.alcorngallery.com/John_Alcorn/JohnAlcornBio.html
- http://50watts.com/John-Alcorn-Evolution-by-Design
- http://dbpedia.org/page/John_Alcorn_(artist)
- Barnes and Noble website search for John Alcorn Link