A magazine illustrator of western stories and histories, Charles Hargens was also a guest instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Design. He was born in Hot Springs, South Dakota, the son of a country doctor and grew up in the West, which gave him first-hand data for his later western illustrations.

He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was a member of the Society of Illustrators and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. He worked for publishers including MacMilland and Doubleday. He painted covers for the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Farm Journal, Boy's Life, Country Gentleman and Open Road for Boys and about 300 books including the Zane Grey western novels. In 1940, Hargens settled in Carversville, Solebury Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.