At age 13 he was confined to his home for two years with an illness that gave him time to read and teach himself to draw.
He began studies at the Museum School of Art in 1916 but dropped out in 1917 when he and his brother joined the 103rd Engineers, AEF and served in France during World War I, where he first met writer Al Barrone.
On return, he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where his teachers included illustrators Thorton Oakley and George Harding, both from the original classes of Howard Pyle.
For many years he was the illustrator of the "Stillmeadow" books written by Gladys Taber, about everyday life in her colonial farmhouse in Southbury, Connecticut, including Stillmeadow and Sugarbridge, co-written by his wife Barbara Webster and based on correspondence between Taber and Webster.
He also wrote ten books and seventy-five articles for various magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, The New Yorker, Collier's, and The Atlantic Monthly.