As it also turns out, my international upbringing has helped to distort my perceptions. While 'M.' may designate Monsieur in my mind, that was quite assuredly not the case. In fact, Brundage was a woman, counter to any expectations formed by the artwork.
Born in the final weeks of the 19th century, Margaret Brundage seems to have been a woman far ahead of her times. Like her artwork, she was unconventional and sought to be free of imposed constraints. Not just for herself; she was an activist for human & labor rights and a prominent counter culture figure in 1930s Chicago. She was a regular at the Dill Pickle Club, a gathering place for social thinkers and activists to share and debate ideas. A sign outside the club warned free thinkers to "Step High. Stoop Low. Leave Your Dignity Outside." The Dill Pickle Club and its heirs brought together street folk with Brundage, Upton Sinclair, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg and many others in the type of common philosopher gatherings that Ben Franklin established in colonial Pennsylvania. This all seemed well suited to the woman who was challenging the social mores with her artwork.
She worked mostly in pastels - perhaps a result of her start in fashion before getting cover work for the pulps? This helped to give her art a unique look, reinforcing her distinctness in a market that was exclusively male. No doubt this influenced her decision to go by M. Brundage, tucking her gender neatly out of public sight. And wisely, it would seem. When the public found out that Brundage was a woman, they were shocked and outraged. In New York, famed mayor Fiorello LaGuardia wound up pushing through new 'decency law' restrictions on newsstands in reaction to Margaret's artwork the year her sex was discovered.
My best guess is that it was this cover, from yesterday's post, that set him off -
Possibly it was the January cover a couple months earlier, but this seems the mostly likely focus for his ire.
Unfortunately, the controversy over her gender arose about the same time that the publisher of Weird Tales moved from Chicago to New York, taking most of her job market with them. Margaret had a hard life - a scrape-to-get-by childhood, marriage to an alcoholic, and a society that turned its back on her talent. While she continued to paint until her death in 1976, she rarely found a publisher and lived most of her life in relative poverty.
A tragedy for the woman who has become known as The Queen Of Pulps. And an all too common fate for pioneers in our world. Margaret Brundage paved the way for those who followed - Olivia, Rowena, Julie Bell... - but paid a heavy price along the way.
She famously created 66 covers for Weird Tales - this is mentioned most times when i see anyone speaking of Margaret. In preparation for this piece, i finally tracked down the few i was missing. I'm going to split that into two cover gallery posts - one this evening and one midday tomorrow.
covers by Margaret Brundage (1932, 1933, 1938)
