Stanley L. Wood

Who was Stanley L. Wood?

Stanley Llewellyn Wood was a Victorian English illustrator, noted for his prolific output of scenes featuring horses in action and widely used in boys' adventure stories.

Wood worked for the publishing firm of Chatto & Windus in London as an in-house illustrator. His work was exhibited at most of the principal galleries, seven of his mostly military theme works were hung at the Royal Academy. The Illustrated London News sent Wood to South Dakota in 1888 where he was inspired by the American Old West way of life and for many years produced work with a Cowboy and Indian flavour. Harper's published a number of his illustrations. The bookdealer and founding member of the Potomac Corral, Jefferson Chenoweth Dykes better known as Jeff Dykes, wrote in Fifty Great Western Illustrators - "No better horse artist ever lived than Stanley L. Wood - there was more action in a Stanley Wood illustration than in the story itself".

His many Africana illustrations included those for the books of Bertram Mitford - The Gun Runner, The Luck of Gerald Ridgeley, The Curse of Clement Wayneflete, Renshaw Fanning's Quest, The King's Assegai, A Veldt Official and The Expiation of Wynne Palisser.