Jack Coggins Jack Banham Coggins ( July 10 , 1911 – January 30 , 2006 ) was an artist , author , and illustrator . He is known in the United States for his oil paintings , which focused predominantly on marine subjects . He is also known for his books on space travel , which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins . Besides his own works , Coggins also provided illustrations for advertisements and magazine covers and articles . During World War II , he served as an artist and correspondent for " YANK " magazine , capturing and conveying wartime scenes from the front lines . Over the course of his career , Coggins produced more than 1 , 000 paintings and taught art classes for 45 years . He retired in May 2001 and died at his home in Pennsylvania in January 2006 . Biography . Early life . Coggins was born in London , England on July 10 , 1911 , the only child of Ethel May ( née Dobby ) and Sydney George Coggins . Sydney Coggins was Regimental Corporal Major of the First Regiment of Life Guards , the part of the Household Cavalry responsible for guarding the British Monarch ; Jack Coggins was born in his father ' s barracks . During World War I , Sydney Coggins served with , and was commissioned by the regiment . After the war , he was appointed regimental Riding Master , but he was retired when the 1st and 2nd Life Guards were amalgamated into a single regiment under the Geddes Axe . A fellow officer , married to an American steel heiress , offered Sydney work as a secretary to his wife , and the Coggins family emigrated to Long Island , New York in 1923 . Education . While his father served with the Life Guards Regiment in France during World War I , Coggins and his mother lived with family in Folkestone , Kent . He attended the Imperial Service College , a public school preferred by army families . After moving to New York , Coggins enrolled at Roslyn High School in Roslyn Heights where he found difficulty in adjusting to the difference between military school in England and New York city public school . After graduation from Roslyn in 1928 at age 17 , he enrolled in the New York City Grand Central School of Art and studied under Edmund Greacen , George Pearse Ennis , and Wayman Adams . In the early years , he painted advertising signs to support himself . With a grounding in fine art techniques , Coggins graduated to the Art Students League of New York , where he studied from 1933 to 1934 under noted artist Frank DuMond . Marriage and later life . While a member of the faculty of Hunter College in New York , Coggins met Alma Wood , a fashion and photographic model . They married in 1948 and moved to Pike Township , Berks County , Pennsylvania , where Coggins had bought an old farm . Alma named their home " Crestfield , " which , according to Jack , meant absolutely nothing . Coggins taught his wife to paint , and she had success as an artist in her own right under the name Alma Woods . The couple would hold annual joint exhibitions for many years . Alma Coggins assisted her husband in the planning , research and typing of many of his books , and he acknowledged her efforts with book dedications to her . Coggins taught art classes at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts from 1957 until 2001 , despite being handicapped by the loss of his left eye due to infection after an operation . Coggins was a signature member and Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America , a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists , a member of the American Ordnance Association , the U . S . Naval Institute , and an adviser to the boards of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and the Reading Public Museum . He died at his home in Berks County , Pennsylvania at the age of 94 and willed his body to medical science . Alma Wood - Coggins died March 4 , 2007 . Jack and Alma Coggins had no children and were survived by several nieces and nephews . Illustrator , author and artist . Military illustrations of World War II . Coggins ' s interest in sailing and maritime subjects began in London when he would sail model yachts on Round Pond in Kensington Gardens . This interest developed into a lifelong passion during his teens when he sailed small craft on Hempstead Harbor , near his new home on Long Island . During the early years of World War II , Coggins took a sampling of his war illustrations to Worthen Paxton , the art director of " LIFE Magazine " , who commissioned Coggins to produce a drawing of an imaginary coastal invasion of England . Coggins was paid $ 250 for that work , a large sum at the time , which paid his rent for five months . Appearing on July 15 , 1940 , this was the first of many war time illustrations for " LIFE " . Some of Coggins ' s works are in the Anne S . K . Brown Military Collection . During the early 1940s , Coggins obtained more work producing war pictures for other magazines , including a series of double - page spreads for the controversial newspaper " PM " , and illustrations for " The Saturday Evening Post " . Throughout the war years , most of the output of many large corporations was reserved for materiel production ; however , management were keen to promote their connection to the war effort and keep their name before the buying public until they could resume peacetime sales . Coggins received advertising commissions from such corporations including Elco , Koppers , US Steel , and Westinghouse . He also received commissions from the U . S . War Department for aircraft recognition charts , and he was intrigued to later find these charts used during his army basic training . Because of the quality of his maritime illustrations , Coggins was invited by publisher Doubleday to provide artwork for a children ' s book about the U . S . Navy ; the author being Fletcher Pratt , the well known military historian . Coggins was invited to participate in Pratt ' s " Naval Game " , based on a wargame developed by Fred T . Jane involving dozens of tiny wooden ships , built on a scale of one inch to fifty feet . These were spread over the floor of Pratt ' s apartment and their maneuvers were calculated via a complex mathematical formula . The result of Pratt and Coggins ' s first collaboration , published in 1941 , was " Fighting Ships of the U . S . Navy " , a volume that described in text and illustrated in full color every class of ship in the Navy . Coggins was called up for Army service , and enlisted on April 8 , 1943 . He was pulled from basic training at Fort Eustis , Virginia before he could complete it to work as an illustrator for " YANK " magazine . He was originally introduced to the Commanding Officer and Editor of " YANK " , Colonel Franklin Forsberg , by Fletcher Pratt . On May 20 , 1943 , Coggins commenced work at the head office of " YANK " in New York , where he worked until his departure for Britain . Jack Coggins became a naturalized citizen of the United States on August 19 , 1943 . Coggins served as an artist for British " YANK " in London until August 2 , 1945 and was discharged from the U . S . Army on November 3 , 1945 . While in Britain , Coggins spent time on a Royal Navy convoy in the North Sea , witnessed the bombing of Saint - Lô , and flew over Berlin in a Lancaster bomber . He also spent time on a U . S . PT boat patrolling the beaches and made a trip into Brittany with an armored column . Events from all of these sorties were illustrated in " YANK " magazine in double page spreads . During his time in Britain , Coggins wrote articles on war rockets and the German Navy which were also published in " YANK " . Science and science - fiction illustrations . During the late 1940s and early 1950s Coggins ' s marine art was featured on covers of Yachting Magazine and other publications , as well as on advertising material , and his science - fiction art illustrated covers for pulp science fiction magazine s . These included " Galaxy Science Fiction " , " The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction " and " Thrilling Wonder Stories " . Due to reduced interest in his pre - war work , Coggins applied for a position teaching watercolor at Hunter College . He taught watercolor painting there from 1948 to 1952 . In New York , as a result of his friendship with Fletcher Pratt , Coggins was introduced to the members of the Hydra Club , where he met Judith Merril and L . Ron Hubbard . Coggins was also invited to join Pratt ' s Trap Door Spiders club , where he became closely associated with L . Sprague de Camp and Isaac Asimov . The contact with such visionary thinkers complimented his exposure to the German V - 2 rockets in Europe and served to strengthen his growing interest in space travel , rockets , and science fiction . In 1951 and 1952 , Coggins collaborated again with Fletcher Pratt on two classic books : " Rockets , Jets , Guided Missiles & Space Ships " , and " By Space Ship to the Moon " . The books were released amidst the great wave of interest in space travel sweeping the United States and the rest of the world in the 1950s , and they were published in several countries and translated into other languages . These books made the prospect of space exploration seem a practical possibility . National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) scientists used the books to demonstrate their ideas to Congressmen when seeking funding for the space program , and there are many NASA scientists today who retain fond memories of the influence the books had on their careers . Books . Between 1941 and 1983 , Coggins wrote or illustrated 44 books on a wide range of marine , military , historical and educational themes . Among his more famous works is the 1962 authoring and illustration of " Arms and Equipment of the Civil War " . Dale E . Biever , registrar at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia , described the work as " not about generals or battles but about the things one should know before delving into those areas . . . a welcome addition to any Civil War library . " It was republished several times , most recently in 2004 . In 1966 , Coggins wrote and illustrated " The Horseman ' s Bible " , which sold over 500 , 000 copies with a revised edition published in 1984 . In this book Coggins acknowledges his father " whose twenty five years in the cavalry and lifetime interest in horses made his advice invaluable . " Coggins ' s last book was " Marine Painter ' s Guide " , which was first published in 1983 . After the book was published , he decided to stop writing to concentrate more on painting . A new edition of " Marine Painter ' s Guide " was published in 2005 by Dover Publications , the publisher of new editions for several of his books . Other paintings and illustrations . Coggins relies on a realistic style that is executed in oils , for which he had a preference . However , he also painted works in water colors and other media . The majority of his paintings have a maritime theme , about which he wrote " It seems strange that with so much of the globe covered by water , so few artists know how to paint it . " His stated preference in art styles was " a direct splashy type of realistic painting " and he admired the New Hope school of Redfield and Garber , with " no liking for ' modern art . A catalog listing over 1000 works has been posthumously compiled by his relatives . A retrospective exhibition and sale of artworks found in Coggins ' s home after his death was held at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts in late 2006 . This consisted of about 300 previously unseen oils , watercolors , and other printed materials . An annual " Jack Coggins award " to be given to a deserving local artist was financed from part of the proceeds from the sale of these works . Recognition . Coggins ' s work has been accepted for show by the American Watercolor Society , the Salmagundi Club , the American Artist Professional League , and the Pastel Society of America . Coggins received a number of awards and accolades during his career , including the American Revolution Round Table Award in 1969 , the Daniel Boone National Foundation ' s Americanism Award in 1985 , the Mystic Maritime Gallery ' s Purchase Award in 1989 , the International Maritime Exhibition ' s Rudolph Shaeffer Award from 1987 to 1990 , and Berks Art Council ' s Pagoda Award in 1995 . In 2000 , he was inducted to the International Association of Astronomical Artists Hall of Fame as a " Living Legend " and celebrated master of the genre of Space Art .