Emil Weiss

Emil Weiss (August 14, 1896 – January 6, 1965) was a Czech illustrator, reporter, and architect. Life and career Emil Weiss was born in Moravia, which was then part of Austria-Hungary, and trained as an architect in Vienna. He worked as a cartoonist for newspapers and as a commercial artist in Prague in the 1920s. His posters are on display at the Prague Museum of Applied Arts, where reproductions are on sale as posters and as miniatures on matchbox covers. Weiss also worked as an Art Deco architect. Following Hitler's ascension to power, in 1938 he sought refuge in Britain, but was denied a working permit until 1939 when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, whereupon his status changed from visitor to refugee. His personal version of his European drawing style made it difficult to find work. Due to the difficulty of finding jobs, he accepted most offers, including making wartime propaganda posters, illustrations for Czech publications, and portrait sketches for The Daily Telegraph. He then met Rose Fyleman, author of children's books and poetry, who was doing a serial for the children's page of The Christian Science Monitor in Boston. He illustrated the weekly segments for her and that led him to Saville Davis, then the Monitors London correspondent, who appointed him their London visual reporter. There he covered international events such as the 1946 conference in Lancaster House where the United Nations was born. In 1948 he emigrated to the US and became the Monitors artist-reporter covering national events and politicians both on assignment as well as freelance until his death in 1965.