Books about Books – Post #6

 

The Golden Age of Children’s Book Illustration by Richard Dalby. Published by Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 1991.

 

From the dust jacket: “From the 1860s to the 1930s there was a great flowering of the illustrator’s art in England and America…author Richard Dalby has written biographies of more than fifty of the artists whose talents helped to create the Golden Age…There are more than 150 illustrations – both colour plates and black and white drawings – which have been reproduced with painstaking fidelity to the originals.”

 

Some artists included are well-known to those of us who treasure children’s books: illustrators such as Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway, Howard Pyle, and Randolph Caldecott. Also included are some lesser-known artists such as Willy Pogany and Louis Rhead.

 

Over my years of book collecting, I have been drawn to the art in these vintage books and have felt saddened by the modern computer-generated “art” in modern children’s books. I even know friends who have  photocopied and framed their children’s favorite illustrations for their homeschool rooms or nurseries. Scenes from Howard Pyle’s The Story of King Arthur and His Knights or N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations from Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson or the charming idyllic art of Beatrix Potter from The Tale of Peter Rabbit. What a delight for children and young people to be exposed to such inspiring talent!

 

I highly recommend The Golden Age of Children’s Book Illustration. It’s a lovely book to browse and learn about these talented artists who have given so much to the world of children’s literature.