An influential teacher whose pen-and-ink drawings helped define the style of the early twentieth century, Edmund J. Sullivan sought to define the principles behind good illustration. His treatise ― richly illustrated with black-and-white engravings by Holbein, Dürer, Rubens, Blake, and many others ― also offers suggestions on materials and methods.
Sullivan, who came of age during the heyday of graphic design and book illustration, was a firm believer in free but faithful artistic interpretations. In The Art of Illustration, he conducts a fascinating journey through art history that ranges back and forth in time from his contemporaries — including Beardsley, Doré, and Whistler — to Botticelli and other old masters. Sullivan's knowledgeable and informative discourse covers symbolism, cartoons, the use of models, the illustration of poetry and plays, children's books, and a host of other topics of enduring interest to artists and art lovers.

Edmund Joseph Sullivan (1869–1933) began as a news and portrait illustrator for Victorian periodicals and advanced to book illustration, creating images for Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. His most famous illustration appears on the cover of the Grateful Dead's 1971 "Skull and Roses" album.