by Terri Windling Maiden-in-a-Tower stories can be found in folk traditions around the world -- but Rapunzel, the best known of these stories, comes from literary sources. The version of Rapunzel we know today was published as a German folk tale by the Brothers Grimm in 1857 -- but it's...
'Grimm's Fairy Tales' illustrated by Elenore Abbott. Published 1920 by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Source
enchantingimagery: Cinderella being transformed by her Fairy Godmother. An illustration from the art-book Marchen by Yoshitaka Amano. Image found here- http://yoshitaka-amano.kouryu.info/page_eng.html
Sulamith Wülfing 1901 -1989
Once upon a time, fairy tales were stories intended for adults. They do not necessarily have the happy endings Disney has led us to believe. In those stories, animals talked, faeries and forest spirits lived, and ordinary objects had inexplicable capabilities.
A Book of Poetry Illustrated by Florence Harrison She stood on inner ground that budded flowers.
This post is prompted by two things: First, I heard Elizabeth Gilbert say, in an interview, that according to Joseph Campbell there was no such thing as a heroine’s journey, because the heroi…
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Wow. Here's another Arthur Rackham illustrated book I'd never seen before, until I stumbled into it a few days ago. The illustration, Dance of Spring, is gorgeous, with both grace in the figures and unexpected cartoonish humor in the flying insect-like winged creature in the upper right hand corner wearing a caricature of Rackham's face, along with the Arthur Rackham "self portraits" repeating in the border framing the painting, as printed in the book, Snickerty Nick and the Giant by Julia Ellsworth Ford. Snickerty Nick is a play for children with a giant named Baron Bill-Arron Bomberrum, a dwarf named Snickerty Nick, The Little Boy, The Children, Winter's Gnomes, and Spring's Faeries, published in 1919 by Moffat, Yard & Company. Quoting the author from the foreward: "To Arthur Rackham I tender my most sincere thanks whose magic touch as in Peter Pan, Grimm's Faery Tales, and Undine, making real all faeries and gnomes, endears all child life to grown-ups as well as to children." ~ Julia Ellsworth Ford Arthur Rackham ~ 1919 Snickerty Nick and the Giant Dance of Spring Arthur Rackham ~ 1919 Snickerty Nick and the Giant Dance of Winter and Gnomes Arthur Rackham ~ 1919 Snickerty Nick and the Giant The Little Boy I can't say I like all of the characters in this little play, as depicted by Rackham. Snickerty and the Giant, based it seems on an aspect of Rackham's own visage, do not appeal to me, but I enjoy the children, and the woman who is Spring. Rackham himself also appears as The Sandman. Like Rackham's illustration of the mermaids in my earlier post featuring his work for the book, Imagina, I get the sense Rackham probably had a lot of fun creating these images, perhaps relaxing his exacting standards to capture a purely playful quality. There must be satirical or ironic significance to the illustration of the great Cornish ogre. All of the illustrations capture great expression, characterization and movement. Dance of Spring is my favorite, and the woman in Spring reminds me a bit of the bewitchery the viewer experiences, as in viewing Rackham's characterizations of Undine, though Spring is more mature and the two women look nothing alike. I'll be featuring and discussing my favorite illustrations from Undine in a future post. Click each image for great detail.
Beauty and the Beast by Marie LePrince de Beaumont, illustrated by Hilary Knight MacMillan, 1963 Blogged at loveinthesuburbs.com/wordpress/old-treasure-beauty-and-th...
