Cober, Alan Edwin

Alan Edwin Cober (May 18, 1935 - January 17, 1998) was an accomplished American illustrator whose work frequently appeared in major newspapers and magazines, as well as 25 books. Cober was born and raised in the Bronx, in New York City. His father was a criminal defense lawyer while his mother was the president of an organization working with intellectual disabled children; the young Cober gained an appreciation for social inequalities and the disadvantaged through his parents' work that would later become a prominent theme in his illustrations. He attended the Barnard School for Boys and then the University of Vermont but later completed his degree at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Cober was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1958 and spent most of his Army years in the graphics department at the Special Warfare School in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. After leaving the Army, Cober became a freelance illustrator and developed a gritty, idiosyncratic style and a willingness to deviate from established conventions. But the quality of his work was such that art directors at various publications published his works nonetheless. Cober's illustrations appeared in nearly all the major periodicals of the era, from Sports Illustrated, Seventeen, and Esquire to Newsweek, The New York Times, and Time. He additionally was commissioned for works by the National Park Service and major corporations like IBM, CBS, and Exxon. Cober considered himself a visual journalist rather than an illustrator and indeed he was often given journalistic assignments such as Jimmy Carter's 1980 presidential campaign and space shuttle liftoffs at Cape Canaveral. But Cober never lost his fascination with the unfortunate and downtrodden, for instance publishing a collection of drawings from nursing homes, prisons, and mental institutions titled The Forgotten Society in 1975. In addition to illustrations, Cober worked in several other media, including painting and ceramics, and taught at various points at the State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Georgia, and the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida.