Norman Rockwell’s Christmas Book, Consulting Editor Molly
Rockwell. An Abrams Book.
An anthology of classic Christmas stories, songs, and poems, that’s
illustrated throughout by Rockwell’s famous artwork. I can’t really say that
Rockwell is one of my favorite artists, but he was around everywhere when I was
a kid, and I’m fairly fond of his vision of small town, nostalgic America. [Not my cover, which is plain white. I suspect this was the jacket.]
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Christmas. Art. Hardback.
A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition, by Lee Mendelson
with reminiscences by Bill Melendez.
The story behind the first Peanuts special, about Charles
Schulz and how he came to write it, how the very first Peanuts animation was
made by Bill Melendez for a car commercial, the children who did the voices, who
Vince Guaraldi was and how he wrote the music, the production and sale of the
special, and the complete illustrated script itself. There is probably no TV
special that had more of an impact on me, and this look at everything surrounding
the production is interesting news about a very old friend.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Animation. History. Peanuts. Hardback.
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”: The Making of a
Television Classic, by Lee Mendelson with reminiscences by Bill Melendez.
“Special 40th Anniversary Edition”. An examination
of the second Peanuts holiday specials, how it arose in the wake of “A Charlie
Brown Christmas”, how Schulz had already had strips about the Great Pumpkin and
Snoopy as the WWI flying ace, the voice actors, and the return of Vince
Guaraldi for more music, including the immortal ‘Linus and Lucy’ theme. It ends
with the illustrated script. It might have had, if anything, even MORE of an
impact on me. “As a kid who grew up in a religion that strictly prohibited tricks-or-treats,
it was a glimpse into forbidden fun for us. But Linus's situation as someone
who believed in a system alternate to the mainstream paradoxically had special
meaning to me at the same time.” – Power of Babel.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Animation. History. Peanuts. Softcover.
The Szyk Haggadah, Illustrated by Arthur Szyk. Translation
and Commentary by Byron L. Sherwin and Irvin Ungar.
“Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a graphic artist, book
illustrator, stage designer, and caricaturist. He was Jewish, born in Poland,
and all his life he worked both for his homeland and his faith. Before World
War Two his work was renowned in Poland, France, and Great Britain; after he
moved to the USA his work became popular for his scathing caricatures of the
Axis leaders Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohito. His work was characterized by a
rejection of modernism and its embrace of Medieval and Renaissance traditions,
especially illuminated manuscripts. He illustrated such traditional works as
Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, the Haggadah, and Chaucer's Canterbury
Tales.” – Power of Babel. “The Szyk Haggadah is a Passover Haggadah that was illustrated by the
Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk in Poland between 1934 and 1936. Szyk's
visual commentary on the ancient story of Passover uses the vocabulary and format
of an illuminated
manuscript; each of
his 48 full-page watercolor and gouache illuminations
contains the traditional text of the Haggadah (in Hebrew calligraphy), which is clarified and interpreted
by the images and symbols on the same page.” – Wikipedia. Szyk has come to be
one of my favored illustrators; his artwork is why I bought this book, although
its religious content is interesting as well.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Religion. Religious Text. Softcover.
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