Dunn brought to lunch Charles Robinson who has designed the cover of "Journalism for Women": a very young, unkempt, pale, nervous man with tremulous eyes. One could see that not long since he had been more nervous than he is today. Contact with the world was making him less like a startled faun. He told me that his design for my book had been so much liked that it had resulted in orders for twenty other covers.
Charles Robinson (1870–1937) was a prolific British book illustrator. Born in Islington, London, he was the son of an illustrator and his brothers Thomas Heath Robinson and William Heath Robinson also became illustrators. He served an apprenticeship as a printer and took art lessons in the evenings. He won a place at the Royal Academy in 1892 but was unable to take it up due to lack of finances. The first full book he illustrated was Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (1895) which includes over 100 pen and ink drawings. It was extremely popular, going through many reprints, and generated numerous commissions. He illustrated many fairy tale and children's books throughout his career, as well as non-fiction works like Arnold Bennett's "Journalism for Women"
Phillpotts was extremely enthusiastic about the merits of "A Man from the North". It seemed strange and unreal to be treated by this finely serious novelist as an artist of the same calibre as himself.
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