Out of the Singing Blue a Man Rode Towards Them

Illustration for Katharine Newlin Burt’s “Triggerfinger: A Romance of a Desperado, Cosmopolitan Magazine (June 1924), with caption, “Out of the singing blue a man rode towards them, and as he rode, graceful and grave in all the trappings of a romantic West, he looked into Linda’s startled, vivid face.”

Born at Logan City, Utah, Stoops studied at Utah State College before working as staff artist for San Francisco newspapers. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and worked for the Chicago Tribune before serving in World War I. Stoops then became a New York illustrator for magazines such as Cosmopolitan, McCall’s, and Ladies Home Journal. He built a summer home at Mason’s Island, Connecticut, and painted covers for American Legion and Blue Book magazines.

Part of the PPHM Bugbee-Reaugh Acquisition Fund. Currently on exhibit in the PPHM Southwestern Gallery