Charles Howard Johnson was a nineteenth century American illustrator and newspaper artist. He is best known for his sparse illustrations of the 1890 U.S. edition of The princess

The Princess (poem)

The Princess is a serio-comic blank verse narrative poem, written by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1847. Tennyson was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1850 to 1892 and remains one of the most popular English poets....

 by the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Very little is known of Johnson's life. He was born in Kansas City

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, and came to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in about 1889 He worked on the magazines Life

Life (magazine)

Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

, Truth

Truth

Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...

, Munsey's Magazine

Munsey's Magazine

Munsey's Weekly, later known as Munsey's Magazine was a thirty-six page quarto magazine founded by Frank A. Munsey in 1889. Munsey aimed at "a magazine of the people and for the people, with pictures and art and good cheer and human interest throughout". John Kendrick Bangs was the editor. The...

, and on some of the daily newspapers.

He was particularly effective in decorative work, often making the pictures fantastical.

He was engaged to be married to the actress Elita Proctor Otis

Elita Proctor Otis

Elita Proctor Otis was an American actress. She was born in 1851 in Cleveland, Ohio, and died 10 August 1927, Pelham, New York, USA. She had a long distinguished stage career before her foray into early silent films...

, before he died at his apartment in the Union Square

Union Square (New York City)

Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...

 Hotel of brain fever

Brain fever

Brain fever describes a medical condition where a part of the brain becomes inflamed and causes symptoms that present as fever. The terminology is dated, and is encountered most often in Victorian literature...

on July 3 1896, after an illness of ten days.