Emery Clarke (1911-1990) was born in Parsons City, Kansas. He began studying at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1932 and moved to New York City in 1936 to find work as a magazine illustrator. He painted as a freelancer for pulp magazines like Action Stories, Love Romances, Star Western, and Top-Notch and also painted covers for Doc Savage. Clarke submitted an unsolicited cover painting to The Saturday Evening Post in 1939 that was accepted for publication. This began his successful career with magazines. He began illustrating for Look, This Week, and The Saturday Evening Post.

Clarke was drafted during World War Il and assigned to work on training films in Canute Field, Illinois. There he met Russell Stamm, the cartoonist who created  the comic “The Invisible Scarlet O’Neil.” When the war ended, the two teamed up to work on the comic strip together for the next ten years. Clarke became and art instructor at the Famous Artists School in 1958 and eventually retired to Arrington, Virginia.

He created seven covers for The Saturday Evening Post.