Harry Kane (Kirchner) – Western Romance illustration (1932)

As a kid I was a big fan of The Three Investigators series of mystery books. These books featured covers and interior illustrations by Harry Kane and when I started collecting art I put a Kane Investigators piece on my list. I have yet to come across one so in the meantime this piece will have to do. The only info I have on this piece is from the auction description: Harry Kirchner (as Harry Kane) Western Romance page 9 illustration original art (Street & Smith Publ., 1932). “Love is a trap”. From what I could find the closest title that publisher had was Far West Romances though the piece could have appeared in any of their other western pulps (Cowboy Stories, Buffalo Bill Stories, Far West Stories, Pete Rice Magazine, True Western Stories, Western Story Magazine, Wild West Weekly). If any pulp collectors out there could verify where this was published, I would appreciate it.

Harry Kane (born Kirchner, 1912-1988) was an illustrator that lived and worked in NYC. He created book covers and interior illustrations for books and pulp magazines as well as commercial advertising artwork. His contributions to The Three Investigators series of books was from 1964 - 1971. He painted the cover art for Random House hardbound titles #3 through #16 in the series and he created seven full-page black and white internal illustrations for titles #1 through #16. He also designed the famous blue graveyard endpapers.