Walter M. Baumhofer
Walter Martin Baumhofer was an American illustrator notable for his cover paintings seen on the pulp magazines of Street & Smith and other publishers.
Baumhofer's parents emigrated from Germany. His father Henry came from Oldenburg, his mother Marie from Hanover. He was born and grew up in Brooklyn where his father had become a clerk at a local coffee company and then, in 1918, janitor at an apartment building, a situation which enabled the family to live rent free. Graduating from high school in 1922, Baumhofer went on a scholarship to Pratt Institute, where he studied under Dean Cornwell and H. Winfield Scott.
On June 28, 1935, he married the equally accomplished illustration artist Alureda Leach Baumhofer, nicknamed Rita or Pete. She received a Certificate in Costume and Commercial Illustration from Pratt Institute in 1925, where she met Walter. She was most active with art déco fashion and commercial illustrations in the 1920s and 1930s
Illustrations
In 1925, he began drawing interior illustrations for Adventure magazine. Scott suggested he submit cover paintings to pulps, and the following year his first pulp cover appeared on Danger Trail. He moved on to do covers for Doc Savage, Pete Rice, Dime Mystery, Dime Detectiveand The Spider. Joining the American Artists agency in 1937, he sold to slick magazines, including The American Magazine, The American Weekly, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, McCalls, Redbook and Woman's Day. In the 1950s he worked for men's adventure magazines, such as Argosy, Sports Afield and True.