(...) On the other hand, Frank McCarthy, the artist who was called upon to render a realistic picture of the crucial training-camp grudge fight for [author Bill] Cox's story, had only the experience of a few informal boyhood fights in Scarsdale, New York, to give him proper background.

"In my teens I was mostly a sailor," he recalls. "I took part in a lot of races and I sketched and painted everything I saw. After studying at the Art Students League and Pratt Institute I worked as a messenger boy and apprentice artist and gradually moved up to illustration.

"Then I made a 14,000 mile trip around the country, taking photos and sketching — all the way from New Orleans to California, Lake Louis to Yellowstone, and Montreal to Florida. The pictures and drawings are invaluable to me now in my work.

"But I guess I owe my career to my grammar school, a progressive place where they taught me to print, not write. Somehow that got me started drawing. Furthermore, we never were made to study, so I had plenty of time."

(This text originally appeared in "Collier's", May 27, 1955)

More articles:

August 1950 - "Introducing A New Junior Literary Guild Artist"
May 27, 1955 - "Collier's Credits" (by Jerome Beatty, Jr.)
circa 1972 - "With A Paint Brush Instead Of A Gun"
1974 - "Frank C. McCarthy" (by Frank C. McCarthy)
October 1976 - "Frank C. McCarthy" (by James K. Howard)
May 1981 - "A Visit With Frank McCarthy" (by Kay Mayer)
July 1981 - "Frank C. McCarthy" (by Piet Schreuders)
June 10, 1982 - "Cowboy Art" (by Stewart McBride)
July 1983 - "The Verde Valley - A Personal Profile" (by Frank Brothers)
July 1989 - "The 007' Files: Selling Bond" (by Stephen Rebello)
November 1989 - "Illustrators - Part 1: Movie Posters" (by Franz L. Brown)
October 17, 1990 - "McCarthy Paints For Visual Impact" (by Gail Arnold)
2001 - "The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000" (by Walt Reed)