Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and writer, primarily of books for young audiences. In 1894 he began teaching illustration at the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry, and after 1900 founded his own school of art and illustration called the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art. He wrote an original work, Otto of the Silver Hand, in 1888 and also illustrated historical and adventure stories for periodicals such as Harper’s Weekly and St. Nicholas Magazine. Pyle travelled to Florence, Italy to study mural painting in 1910, and died there in 1911 of sudden kidney infection.