Regular readers will know that I'm a huge fan of the book The WIND In The WILLOWS, written by the estimable Mr. KENNETH GRAHAME (a Scotsman, naturally) back near the turn of the last century. I collect different editions of the book, and today I took possession of the latest addition to my library, The Centennial Anniversary Edition - which is a reissue (or an old copy) of the 75th Anniversary Edition with an amended dustjacket.
What's fascinating is the fact that the cover illustration by ERNEST H. SHEPARD is not one that's familiar to these shores, apparently being reserved exclusively for U.S. editions of the book. The evocative illo, featuring the main characters from the tale, is copyrighted 1960 to the artist, but it's interesting to wonder why it was never used in U.K. editions - though it's always possible that it may have been utilised relatively recently.
The volume features an informative preface by MARGARET HODGES, and an 'afterword' by E. H. Shepard himself, entitled 'Illustrating The Wind in the Willows', which, again (to the best of my knowledge), has never appeared in any U.K. printing of the classic tale. I do have two reservations however. Firstly, the eight colour plates (first seen in the 1959 edition) seem 'washed out' in comparison to U.K. printings - and, secondly, the dustjacket seems too large for the book's width, in the way that the flyleaf folds over the edge. That apart, it's a nice little addition to the collection of any fans of this classic piece of literature.
7 comments:
Do you know of an edition of the Wind in the Willows illustrated by Nadir Quinto? Book Palace have a couple of pieces of original artwork for sale and their description says the book was published in 1993 but my search for the book returned no results. I asked a question about the book and showed pictures of the artwork from Bookpalace.com on page 5 of this thread on Comics UK: http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5412&start=60 but still got nothing. Perhaps you know if such a book was ever published?
Irmantas, I can find no more information than you, so I suspect that perhaps the illustrations come from individually published (and probably abridged) chapters of the book, which has been done a few times with TWITW, I believe. To clarify, chapters have been sold on their own, presumably building up to a collection of several (if not all) of them. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the tip, Anonymous. Do you have any ideas how to search for the book containing the chapter, if that was indeed the case? I am a fan of Nadir Quinto and would love to see more of his work on TWITW.
Actually, Irmantas, that was me - I couldn't be bothered to sign back in to leave my reponse, so just used the 'Anon' option.
Not sure what phrase one would use to search for individually published chapters, but I'll have a go at it and get back to you.
Irmantas, had another search, can still find nothing. Nadir was Italian, so perhaps his illustrations were for a foreign edition of the book?
That's a possibility. Please, remember me if you ever find out anything about the edition - I am really curious...
You'll be the first to know if I discover anything - promise.
Post a Comment