Margaret Armstrong

1867-1944 American

Portadas Art Nouveau y guías florales

Margaret Neilson Armstrong was a 20th-century American designer, illustrator, and author. She is best known for her book covers in the Art Nouveau style. She also wrote and illustrated the first comprehensive guide to wildflowers of the American west, Field Book of Western Wild Flowers (1915). In later life she wrote mystery novels and biographies. Margaret Neilson Armstrong was born on September 24, 1867, in New York City, the daughter of American diplomat and stained glass artist Maitland Armstrong and his wife Helen, who was a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant and a niece of Hamilton Fish. Her six siblings included Helen Maitland Armstrong (1869–1948), who followed in her father's footsteps to become a stained glass artist, and Hamilton Fish Armstrong, a magazine editor. She began her career as a designer in the 1880s, working initially for A.C. McClurg and later for other publishers as well. She designed more than 270 book covers and book bindings, about half of which were for Scribner's. She worked in the Art Nouveau style and favored plant-related motifs, bold colors, gold stamping, and often slightly asymmetrical designs—an unusual combination that helped to distinguish her among her peers. Authors for whom she designed several covers include Frances Hodgson Burnett, Florence L. Barclay, George Washington Cable, Charles Dickens, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Robert Louis Stevenson, Henry van Dyke, and Myrtle Reed. She has been called "the most productive and accomplished American book designer of the 1890s and early 1900s", and her work is often compared to that of her contemporary Alice Cordelia Morse. Her monogram appears on many covers after 1895; it is a simple 'MA' in upper case with the 'M' slightly overlapping the 'A'. Armstrong redujo el diseño de portadas de libros alrededor de 1913, cuando las sobrecubiertas comenzaron a ponerse de moda, y se dedicó a escribir sus propios libros. (Sin embargo, su estilo característico tuvo tanto éxito que las editoriales contrataron posteriormente a artistas específicamente para imitar su aspecto.) Apasionada naturalista, la pasión de Armstrong por las formas naturales reflejaba su interés por la botánica y, en particular, por las flores silvestres. Durante el periodo de 1911 a 1914, viajó y acampó por el oeste de Estados Unidos y Canadá, convirtiéndose en una de las primeras mujeres en llegar al fondo del Gran Cañón. Allí descubrió varias especies de flores que aún no habían sido identificadas por los botánicos. Detalla esas y muchas otras especies en su Field Book of Western Wild Flowers (1915). Con sus 550 ilustraciones (48 de ellas en color), su Field Book se considera la primera guía completa sobre el tema. En sus sesenta y setenta años, escribió tres novelas de misterio elogiadas por la crítica —Murder in Stained Glass (1939), The Man with No Face (1940) y The Blue Santo Murder Mystery (1941)— y dos biografías, Fanny Kemble: A Passionate Victorian (1938) y Trelawny: A Man's Life (1940). También completó las memorias de su padre. Murió en la ciudad de Nueva York en 1944.