Illustrator James Ellsworth "Worth" Brehm was a native of Hamilton County, Indiana. He graduated from Noblesville High School in 1902 and attended Indiana University, DePauw University, and the Herron Institute art school in Indianapolis. He and his older brother George, also an artist, worked for short time at the Indianapolis Star.

Worth Brehm became interested in art through his brother George. He prepared a series of sample drawings in Indiana, brought them to New York, and Outing magazine bought them all. Publication of these pictures led Harper’s to commission him to illustrate The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

He later did general illustration for many magazines; the best known were for the Penrod stories by Booth Tarkington in Cosmopolitan.