"Music Round the Town" edited by Max T. Krone, Irving Wolfe, Beatrice Perham Krone & Margaret Fullerton, illustrated by Val Samuelson (1963)

VAL SAMUELSON (1913 - 2000) was born in Barrett, Minnesota. He studied at the Minnesota School of Art and the Institute of Fine Arts. He worked as a sign painter in Minnesota and as art director for two advertising agencies in Los Angeles before he surfaced in Palm Springs in 1953. He suffered from eye problems and had endured several years of complete blindness. Samuelson healed himself, to a degree, with eye exercises and hypnosis–a lifelong interest. 
Samuelson had a diverse career, working as a professional photographer, a cartoonist, a children’s book illustrator and a board game designer. He starred in the Art in Action show for Palm Springs’ TV station KMIR. As well as teaching many fledgling painters in private classes, Samuelson was one of the dreamers behind the Idyllwild Arts Academy, the first independent boarding high school for the arts in the western United States.