Greg Hildebrandt

A Christmas Treasury, Illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt An anthology of “Twas the Night Before Christmas”, the Biblical narrative, and some of the more popular songs and carols, it’s Christmas in the key of Hildebrandt, with all the eye-popping color and old-fashioned artwork that entails. Ranking: It’s a Keeper! File Code: Christmas. Anthology. Illustration. Hardback.

Treasures of Chanukah, Illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt If Greg did Christmas, can Chanukah be far behind? A companion to “A Christmas Treasury”, it recounts the story of the Maccabees and the origin of Chanukah, and includes traditional poems, songs, and prayers, all illustrated in the warm, heightened, Hildebrandt style. An ex-library book with a little damage, but a must-get for me. Ranking: Keep it, why not? File Code: Chanukah. Anthology. Illustration. Hardback.

Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, Illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt. A simply enormous (but not thick) Unicorn Publishing House edition, otherwise uniform to other volumes illustrated by Greg that they’ve published. Nice faux-leather binding. All the usual charms of a Hildebrandt book, with its color and solidity, but reproduced perhaps a little too large for its own good. Ranking: Essential for the artwork. File Code: Children’s Book. Illustrated. Hardback.

Greg Hildebrandt’s Favorite Fairy Tales (Edited and Illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt and A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (Illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt). These are both published for Little Simon, a division of Simon and Schuster, and I believe they started the tradition of Greg putting out books like this, with the ‘enameled’ covers and painted and penciled illustrations. ‘Tales’ in particular let Greg go wild with his subject matter, ranging from Grimm’s to the Arabian Nights to obscure stories like “A Tale of the Tontlawald”. I bought these for the Hildebrandt, not necessarily for the text. Ranking: Essential for the art. File Code: Anthology. Fairy Tales. Hardback.

Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi (Original Translation by M. A. Murray); The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum; Dracula, by Bram Stoker; Robin Hood, by J. Walker McSpadden; The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux (I’m assuming this is the Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation); Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie; and Poe: Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe; Illustrated Editions by Greg Hildebrandt. I have other editions of most of these books elsewhere, and I intend to talk of them there; I got these copies simply for the glory of the Hildebrandt illustrations (paintings and pencil) and the deluxe beauty of the binding, with its enameled covers and gilded cloth. The exception on this list is ‘Phantom’, which is my only copy, and which I have never been able to read. Can’t get past its prose. These are all by Unicorn Publishing House, which I can’t help but think is a division of Simon and Schuster, but I can’t find proof. Ranking: Keepers. Essential for the Art. File Code: Novel. Classics. Hardbacks.

Davy and the Goblin, by Charles E. Carryl. Illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt. (Or, What Followed Reading “Alice in Wonderland”.) The exception to my Hildebrandt Unicorns, in that it is my only copy of this book, and I have read it, and find it a classic. It has unsuspected roots to my childhood in that it contains a poem I’ve enjoyed for years: “The Walloping Window Blind”. It also has an episode of the Goblin eating coals, which I am sure influenced a scene in “Little, Big”. There were many of these nonsense dream adventures for children that came in the wake of “Alice’; this was the best of them. Painting and Pencils. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Children’s Classic. Novel. Hardback.