#illustrated books

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

My first Staff Pick of the Week is Leo Lionni’s whimsical children’s book On My Beach There Are Many Pebbles published in 1961 by Ivan Obolensky, Inc. In this book, Lionni (1910-1999) takes readers on a walk by an imaginative shoreline where he encounters a wide variety of anthropomorphized pebbles including fishpebbles, goosepebbles, and peoplepebbles to name a few. With brief text, readers are left to daydream over his intricate graphite illustrations of beach treasures.  

Lionni was an Italian American who was well known for his accomplishments in painting and advertising designs. While living in Philadelphia in the 1940s he worked on advertising campaigns for Ford Motors and Chrysler Plymouth before accepting the arts director position at Fortune magazine.

Later in life, Lionni moved back to Italy and began his career as a children’s book author and illustrator. He produced over forty children’s books and received numerous awards for his efforts, including the Caldecott Medal on several separate occasions. He is also credited with being the first children’s book author/illustrator to use collage as the main medium for his illustrations. While On My Beach There Are Many Pebbles does not feature collage, one can certainly experience Lionni’s playful use of shapes and composition and appreciate his passion for simple storytelling.

View more children's books from our Historical Curriculum Collection.

View more Staff Picks.

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[mote-historie]

Childrens book illustration by Willy Pogany for Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, From “A Treasury of Verse for Little Children” Selected by M. G. Edgar, circa 1908.

Description: Watercolour heightened with bodycolour, depicting three small children in sailor suits sailing a large clog named 'Daisy' on a sparkling sea, one of them straining on a fishing net, a kindly-faced moon surveying the scene.

[u-mspcoll]

Upcoming Exhibit and Lecture: Illustrating the Renaissance Book: From Illumination to Woodcut

Valerius Maximus (1st c. AD). Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX. Italy. 15th c. Parchment,126 fols. Fol. 5r

Full-page illumination from Carta Executoria de hidalguia de sangre a pedimento de Don Juan de Mansilla como curador de Doña Francisca de Mansilla, hija de Baltasar de Mansilla, vecinos de la villa de Aranda de Duero. Valladolid, 1636 Parchment, 93 fols. Fol. 2r

Full-page woodcut depicting the procession of Priapus, the Greek god of animal and vegetable fertility. Hypnerotomachie, ou Discours du songe de Poliphile Ed: Jean Martin Paris: Jean le Blanc for Jacques Kerver, 1561 Fol. 69r. Loan courtesy of William P. Heidrich

Come explore a selection of manuscripts and early printed books from the 15th to the 17th centuries that were illustrated with illuminations and woodcuts! The display will be up in the Hatcher Gallery Exhibit Room from 6 September to 14 December.

And join us on Wednesday 13 September at 4p in the Hatcher Gallery event space or on zoom a for lecture based on the exhibit.

We hope to see you there!

[pagansphinx]

Gustave Doré (French, 1832-1883) • The Hare and the Frogs • 1868 • Wood engraving • Private collection

[themusewithinthemusewithout]

Arthur Rackham's illustrations for William Shakespeare's "The Tempest", 1926.

[bethanyannfanart]

I've always wanted to make a fanfic like this as I love illustrations. What do you think? Should I illustrate more chapters like this?

I guess this is also an experiment before posting illustrated chapters of my original stories.

This is from Patchwork on A03, my aeriseph fanfic. Thought I'd begin with this chapter as it's one of my favourites.

[therainbowfishy]

Books read in 2022

[yoghurt-bimbo]

The walrus-fairy discourse reminded me of a story from Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan about a dugong mysteriously appearing on a family's doorstep.

[thebeautifulbook]

A MEDIEVAL BESTIARY (Central or northern England, 1210-1220)

A bestiary is a book of real and imaginary beasts, though its subjects can include plants and even rocks. It combined descriptions of the physical nature and habits of animals and includedthe moral and spiritual significance of these characteristics.

Produced in the first decade of the 13th century, this manuscript contains one of the first bestiaries to feature vivid paintings. They are set on gold grounds and in colorful frames instead of the line-drawn renderings used in earlier works of this type. These lavish illuminations would have made this a costly book to produce so it was likely made for an aristocrat, or royal, owner who could read Latin or had a chaplain who could do so.

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source

[magicalyaku]

(German version below) Roots & Raindrops, my second novel is out now! The German edition that is (The book on Amazon). An English one will follow, probably around March 2024. It's a short, mildy adventurous story about a boy trying to find (and save) his penpal, a girl looking for her favourite bird, another boy who might or might not be a prince and the penpal, and a basically-a-vampire who has his hands full with keeping the others from dying to wild beasts. There's magic and birds, everyone's queer, the weather's hot, but no steamy scenes around. The book also features 16 very lovely illustrations by @rechenbaer!

The full summary: 18-year-old Cass currently has two worries: His penpal of 10 years hasn't responded in months and the drought ravaging their kingdom of Rafiah is getting more intense every year causing wild beasts to roam the lands in search for food and thus making travel very dangerous. But travel he must. If the old rumors are true, the royal family's ancient magic might be connected to the bad weather and Cass believes his penpal to be none other than the crown prince himself! So what's going on with him? Cass finds unexpected help in Alanis, the girl who runs the Aerial Post Office in their city, whose dearest bird hasn't returned home since her last delivery to Cass's penpal. So the two of them set out on their journey to find their loved ones - and bring them home.

(German from here on)

Roots & Raindrops, mein zweiter Roman ist jetzt erhältlich! (Auf Amazon) Es ist eine ein bisschen abenteuerliche Geschichte über einen Jungen, der versucht, seinen Brieffreund zu finden (und ihm zu helfen), ein Mädchen, das nach seinem liebsten Vogel sucht, ein weiterer Junge, der vielleicht ein Prinz und der Brieffreund ist, vielleicht aber auch nicht, und ein sowas-wie-Vampir, der alle Hände voll zu tun hat, zu verhindern, dass die anderen von wilden Bestien gefressen werden. Es gibt Magie und Vögel, alle sind queer, das Wetter ist heiß, aber ohne steamy Szenen. Außerdem enthält das Buch 16 wunderschöne Illustrationen von @rechenbaer!

Der Rückentext: Der 18-jährige Cass hat gerade zwei Probleme: Sein Brieffreund seit zehn Jahren hat seit Monaten nicht geantwortet und die Dürre, die ihr Königreich Rafiah heimsucht, wird immer schlimmer, was wilde Bestien auf der Suche nach Futter durch die Gegend streifen lässt und Reisen gefährlich macht. Doch er muss reisen! Wenn die alten Gerüchte wahr sind, hängt die uralte Magie des Königshauses mit dem schlechten Wetter zusammen und Cass glaubt, dass sein Brieffreund kein anderer ist als der Kronprinz selbst! Also was ist los mit ihm? Cass findet unerwartet Hilfe bei Alanis, die das Luftpostamt ihrer Stadt führt und deren liebster Vogel von ihrer letzten Lieferung zu Cass' Brieffreund nicht zurückgekehrt ist. Also machen sich die zwei auf den Weg, ihre Freunde zu finden - und nach Hause zu bringen.

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

On this day April 10 in 1903, noted American author and illustrator of cats Clare Turlay Newberry (1903-1970) was born in Enterprise, Oregon. She spent the majority of her career illustrating cats, especially for many of her own award-winning children’s books, including four Caldecott Honor books. To commemorate Newberry’s birthday we present illustrations from two of her award-winning books, T-Bone the Babysitter, a 1951 Caldecott Honor book published in New York by Harper & Brothers in 1950 (the first 6 images), and April’s Kittens, a 1941 Caldecott Honor book, also published by Harper & Brothers in 1940 (last 5 images). Our copy of April’s Kittens was published in Eau Claire, Wisconsin by E. M. Hale and Company in 1940 by special arrangement with Harper & Brothers.

View another post on April’s Kittens. 

View more posts from our Historical Curriculum Collection of children’s books.

View more Milestone Monday posts.

[kecobe]

L'Îlot = The Islet George Barbier (French; 1882–1932) Pl. VII in Modes et Manières d'Aujourd’hui (1914) Pochoir print FIT Gladys Marcus Library, Special Collections & College Archives, New York

“Que cet îlot de corail est petit au milieu de cette mer immense et bleue!….” (The coral islet is small in the middle of this sea — immense and blue!....)

[careful-disorder]

Thomas Cole,  Scene from The Last of the Mohicans: Cora Kneeling at the Feet of Tamenund 

“Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement.” - Wikipedia

[ally-holmes]

I just bought an illustrated edition of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books. The quality is amazing and I'm very excited to read them in English (as I've previously read them in Spanish, paperback edition). I'll make sure to take some photos soon and show them because I believe this is the best purchase of my existence.

[bethanyannfanart]

So many readers give up aged 12... what age do we cut illustrations from books? See the connection?

Humans are visual, sometimes we need visual aids to hold our attention.

[therainbowfishy]

Books read in August 2023

Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette

Ferris by Kate DiCamillo

Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton

The Big Door Prize by M.O. Walsh