Edmund Alexander Emshwiller was born February 16, 1925 in Lansing, Michigan. His father was Errol Emshwiller, born 1896 in Indiana. His mother was Susie MacLellan, born 1895 in Michigan. His parents were married in 1923. He was firstborn of their two children. His little brother Mac Lellan Emshwiller was born in 1928. His father was a veteran of WWI and a teacher at a local college, the Ferris Institute. They lived at 409 Marion Street in Big Rapids City, Michigan.
By 1940 his family had moved to Richmond, Virginia, where his father had been hired to work at the U. S. Patent Office. They lived at 1510 Laburnum Avenue.
He attended high school and on June 25, 1943, when his Junior semester was over, he enlisted for military service with the Army during WWII. His registration records list his civilian occupation as "motion picture projectionist."
He served as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 351st Infantry, 88th Division, in the European Theater of Operation with the 3rd Battalion in Trieste, northern Italy. He was a Special Service Officer of the training aid shop, which was responsible for signs, posters, decorations, and motion pictures.
After the war he attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied art. One of his classmates in the school of art was Carol Fries, with whom he fell in love. They graduated in 1948.
On August 30, 1949 the two young artists married. His wife was accepted to study at l'Ecole des Beaux Artes in Paris, so in September of 1949 the newlyweds moved to France, where Ed Emshwiller also attended art classes.
In 1950 the couple traveled throughout Europe on a motorcycle trip to visit many of the inspiring art museums.
By 1953 the couple had returned to America and moved to the suburbs of New York City. They lived on Long Island in Levittown, where they raised three children, Eve (b.1955), Susan (b.1957), and Peter (b.1959).
During the 1950s Ed Emshwiller created a few covers for pulp magazines, but he mostly did interior story illustrations for Planet Stories, Future Science Fiction, Thrilling Wonder, Starling Stories, and Amazing Stories. He created many more interior story illustrations and covers for digest magazines such as Galaxy, Fantastic Story, Mercury Mystery Book, Astounding Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Space Stories. He often signed his work, "Emsh."
In the 1950s and 1960s, "Emsh" also created hundreds of covers for paperbacks and hardback books, for such publishers as Gold Medal Books and Ballantine Books.
He also created interior story illustrations for men's adventure magazines, such as Sportsman and True Action.
In the 1960s and 1970s Ed Emshwiller continued to work as a commercial artist, but he also worked extensively with 16mm experimental underground films. He was an active member of the independent film movement in NYC, where he worked in collaboration with avant-garde dancers, such as Yvonne Rainer, Caroline Carlson, and the Pilobolus Dance Group. He was a member of Cinema 16, a society of independent 16mm filmmakers, and the historic Filmmakers' Co-op, founded in 1962 by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage, Gregory Markopoulos, and Lloyd Michael Williams.
In 1979 Ed Emshwiller left NYC and moved to California, where he became the Dean of the Film School at California Institute of the Arts, in Valencia, CA. While serving as Dean from 1979 to 1990, he also served as the school's provost from 1981 to 1986.
Ed Emshwiller died of cancer at age sixty-five on July 27, 1990.
© David Saunders 2009 |
