James Gordon Irving (June 2, 1913 – August 15, 2012) was a commercial illustrator and painter, best known for illustrating the early Golden Guide series of nature books.

Life and career

Irving, who went by the name Gordon, was born in

Ridgefield Park, New Jersey Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the village's population was 13,224, an increase of 495 (+3.9%) from the 2010 census count of 12,729, which in turn reflected ...

. Interested in natural-history illustration from an early age, he took art classes at the Dean Academy in Franklin, Massachusetts, and from the age of 17 at the

Grand Central School of Art The Grand Central School of Art was an American art school in New York City, founded in 1922 by the painters Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark and John Singer Sargent. It closed in 1944. History The school was established and run by the Gra ...

and the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

in New York City. He served in the US Navy at a naval base in San Francisco during World War II, where he met his wife-to-be, Grace Crowe, moving back to New Jersey in 1947 to raise a family. Irving worked as a commercial artist for many years, but is best known as the illustrator of the Golden Guides, pocket-size introductions to natural history for children; he illustrated the first, ''Birds'' (1949) by

Herbert Zim Herbert Spencer Zim (July 12, 1909 – December 5, 1994) was an American naturalist, author, editor and educator best known as the founder (1945) and editor-in-chief of the Golden Guides series of nature books. Biography Zim was born 1909 t ...

& Ira Gabrielson, and eight more during the first years of the series: ''Insects'' (1951), ''Stars'' (1951), ''Trees'' (1952), ''Reptiles and Amphibians'' (1952), ''Fishes'' (1955), ''Mammals'' (1955), ''Zoology'' (1958), and ''Gamebirds'' (1961). When the series was relaunched in 2001, several of the books continued to feature Irving's paintings. A resident of

Haworth, New Jersey Haworth ( ) is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 3,343, a decrease of 39 (−1.2%) from the 2010 census count of 3,382, which in turn reflected a decl ...

, Irving died aged 99 on August 15, 2012, survived by his two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irving, James Gordon 1913 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American illustrators People from Haworth, New Jersey People from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey 20th-century American male artists Artists from New Jersey American botanical illustrators American natural history illustrators American bird artists 20th-century American painters American male painters