Edna Mae Stevenson

Edna Mae Stevenson

Born May 21, 1884 and died February 25, 1955.

Alumni of SAIC 1902-1906 (School of the Art Institute in Chicago).

At age 18 in 1902 her family sent her to the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, where she remained for 4 years until she graduated in 1906. While there she made many lifetime friends, and her husband of over 40 years—Peter Johansen. About 20 years later her classmates contacted her and let her know she could make the money they were making do covers and illustrations in the new field of popular SF and fantasy. She agreed, but used her own name, not the male pseudonyms her classmates did.

She contracted for 5 covers in 1926 for Weird Tales. At the time many magazines were making the push towards more salacious covers to attract the male audience. Considering her keen moral sense, she would do no more covers after her last cover in November 1926 (that can be found) where a young lady was naked on an altar covered by nothing but a wisp of smoke. This cover (from June 1926) is her best.

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