Frank C. Pape

Frank C. Pape

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Frank C. Papé illustration for James Branch Cabell's Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1921)

Frank Cheyne Papé, who generally signed himself Frank C. Papé (b. Camberwell, July 4, 1878 - d. 1972) was an English artist and book illustrator.

Papé's earliest illustrations are found in books for children from around 1908, including The Odyssey and The Pilgrim's Progress. During the second decade of the 20th Century he made extensive contributions to the following titles :

The Gateway to Spenser - Stories from the Faërie Queen (1910);
The Pilgrim's Progress (1910);
The Golden Fairy Book (1911);
The Ruby Fairy Book (1911);
The Diamond Fairy Book (1911);
Sigurd and Gudrun (1912);
Siegfried and Kriemhild (1912);
The Book of Psalms (1912);
As It Is In Heaven (1912);
The Story Without an End (1913);
Robin Hood and Other Stories of Yorkshire (1915); and
The Russian Story Book (1916).

He obtained notice with the illustrations he produced in the 1920s for a number of the books of James Branch Cabell from Biography of the Life of Manuel issued by the publishing house The Bodley Head, including Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1921, originally in a limited edition), The High Place, Something about Eve and The Cream of the Jest. These illustrations often wittily paralleled the double entendres in Cabell's writing. In the preface to the edition of his book Figures of Earth, issued with Papé's illustrations in 1925, Cabell praised the fitness of Papé's style for these works.

The success of these editions led to the Bodley Head commissioning illustrations by Papé for books of Anatole France, including The Revolt of the Angels (1924) and Penguin Island (1925), in addition to those for the works of Rabelais. He also designed book covers for other authors, including Rafael Sabatini.

Papé was also sought after as a designer of bookplates, including that of the author Dennis Wheatley.

During the 1930s Papé's career faltered and little book work of his is recorded after this period, although he apparently supplied illustrations to a Chicago children's magazine in the 1940s.

A number of Papé's original drawings, together with some of his correspondence, is preserved at Stanford University