Secret Gardens, Alternate Childhood

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. Illustration by Ernest H. Shepard.

A Scribner Library book, and as such had rather superior binding for a softcover. This was a copy John had for a while. It has all the Shepard illustrations, which have become rather “standard classic” for the book, and which are the main reason I keep it. Shepard visited the author when Grahame was an old, old man to get his approval. Has a map!

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

The Golden Age, and Dream Days, by Kenneth Grahame. Both illustrated by Maxfield Parrish.

Reminiscences of childhood, and what it felt like to be a child, in constant conflict, it seemed with ‘the Olympians’, or grown-ups: “On the whole, the existence of these Olympians seemed to be entirely void of interests, even as their movements were confined and slow, and their habits stereotyped and senseless. To anything but appearances they were blind. For them the orchard (a place elf-haunted, wonderful!) simply produced so many apples and cherries: or it didn't—when the failures of Nature were not infrequently ascribed to us. They never set foot within fir-wood or hazel-copse, nor dreamt of the marvels hid therein. The mysterious sources, sources as of old Nile, that fed the duck-pond had no magic for them. They were unaware of Indians, nor recked they anything of bisons or of pirates (with pistols!), though the whole place swarmed with such portents. They cared not to explore for robbers' caves, nor dig for hidden treasure.” Written years before the birth of his son or the production of his most famous work, “The Wind in the Willows”, it serves as a celebration and a lament for a childhood that is gone, while at the same time being very clear-eyed about its limitations. “Dream Days” contains the story of “The Reluctant Dragon”.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Whimsical surveys of Childhood. Softcover.

The Reluctant Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame. Illustrations by Ernest H. Shepherd.

The story plucked out of “Dream Days”, and graced by pictures by Shepard, this edition is notable by having been bought from a garage sale with stuff from a retired teacher (it is a Macmillan Reading Spectrum Book), and if you open up and smell it you catch the scent of my childhood education. Has been adapted by Disney, of course, and way back was ‘cartoonified’ into a part of an old Rankin/Bass show, but there was also a good stop-motion version played on “Long Ago and Far Away”.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt.

Not a book I read at school, but one I remember being around. I read it years later after seeing it discussed in some works about children’s literature and getting this cheap copy. I also remember helping one of the girls (Kaitlyn?) with a book report on it. Good, but I wasn’t particularly engaged. Has a movie adaptation.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover

Tom’s Midnight Garden, by Philippa Pearce. Illustrated by Susan Einzig.

After hearing this book discussed in Humphrey Carpenter’s “Secret Gardens: The Golden Age of Children’s Literature” and catching an movie adaptation of it with Joan Plowright, I kept my eyes open for a copy, and found this one at Half-Price for 98 cents. The spine is none-too-good. What I have read of it I’ve enjoyed, but I haven’t given it a complete reading.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

Godhanger, by Dick King-Smith. Illustrations by Andrew Davidson.

Read this under Mike’s encouragement then bought my own copy after. A beast-fable about the Sacrifice and Redemption. Reminds me rather of “The Book of the Dun Cow” and a Narnian ‘supposal’, with a bit of “Watership Down” and “Animal Farm” thrown in. King-Smith is the guy who wrote the book about Babe the Gallant Pig.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Fable. Hardback.

Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll. Illustrations by John Tenniel.

A secondhand Illustrated Junior Library copy, superseded now, I suppose, by The Annotated Alice. Still, a good handy nostalgic reading copy, or a lender. I remember once at Nanny’s during college it was one of my choices if I could only take 20 books with me out into space.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel(s). Hardback.

All the Mowgli Stories, by Rudyard Kipling. Illustrations by Richard M. Powers.

Unique in that it is just that, all of the Mowgli stories, without the non-Mowgli tales in the Jungle Books. It includes the first Mowgli story of all, “In the Rukh”, which ironically is the last in the timeline, when Mowgli is all grown up. I remember reading a library copy under the pecan tree by the driveway at Loop Drive, waiting for the mailman one summer. The carpet grass was still lush and green. I got a secondhand copy of this Junior Deluxe Edition years later.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Short Stories. Children’s Book. Hardback.

Puck of Pook’s Hill, by Rudyard Kipling.

Another old library sale acquisition, it is the story of two children who learn the history of England as Puck informs them through the connected adventures of a sword and a treasure, bringing back people from the old time to tell their part in the story, from Anglo-Saxon times to Magna Carta. Not quite as popular as the Jungle Books over here, it was pretty influential for a generation or two across the water for its exploration of the strands of ‘Englishness’. Plenty of adventure and magic, and I’m sure that T. H. White and Susan Cooper both owe a debt here. Has a sequel which I’ll get to. H. R. Millar had some famous illustrations for it; if I could find an inexpensive copy with them, I’d probably buy it. [ot my cover, which is a pale-green library re-binding.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Rewards and Fairies, by Rudyard Kipling.

A sequel to “Puck of Pook’s Hill”, with the children continuing their adventures learning about English history through the agency of Puck, ‘the oldest Old Thing in England’. The tales wander around in time, beginning in the Elizabethan era. Contains many famous poems between the stories, like “If” and “The Way Through the Woods”. I have read parts – but not all – of this book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy/Historical. Novel. Softcover.

The Complete Fairy Tales of George Macdonald, Introduction by Roger Lancelyn Green.

Illustrations by Arthur Hughes. This book came out in 1961, gathering together eight fairy tales by MacDonald, riding, if the cover is any indication, on the new popularity of Tolkien and Lewis in the counterculture. I’ve read most of these stories elsewhere, but not all, and it is good to have them all in one place. It is in pretty good condition for a softcover that is older than I am, which probably argues for its not having been read very much. It is sometimes hard to get through MacDonald’s style here because it gets very thickly ‘fairy-tail-ese’ in places.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Anthology. Fairy Tales. Softcover.

The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear, Collected and Introduced by Holbrook Jackson. Illustrations by the Author.

A very handy Dover book, which makes my Companion Library Double-Book dispensable, I suppose, except for nostalgia. A little more complete of a collection, too.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Nonsense. Poems and Tales. Softcover.

Carbonel: The King of the Cats, by Barbara Sleigh.

A duplicate/withdrawn old copy from the Schertz Library that I was glad to find at a garage sale. It’s missing the title page. Made entirely obsolete by the new copy, I suppose, except that it’s exactly alike the edition I read at school, with the witch’s hat on the spine.

Ranking: Nostalgic Necessity.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm, by Norman Hunter. Illustrations by W. Heath Robinson.

“Professor Branestawm is a series of thirteen books written by the English author Norman Hunter. Written over a 50-year period, between 1933 and 1983, the children's books feature as protagonist the eponymous inventor, Professor Theophilus Branestawm, who is depicted throughout the books as the archetypal absent-minded professor. Professor Branestawm is always at work in his "Inventory" creating bizarre inventions, all of which either malfunction or work in unanticipated ways, and which lead him into incredible adventures, often accompanied by his friend Colonel Dedshott of the Catapult Cavaliers (soldiers who use catapults as their only weapon), and his housekeeper Mrs. Flittersnoop.” – Wikipedia. Quite popular and much-adapted on British television, this is a re-print of the first book. If I had read them as a child I am sure I would have been a fan; the eccentric inventor professor is a character I always admired (like Cavor in the Harryhausen version of ‘First Men in the Moon’). Here is the trope in spades, and the Professor is the hero rather than a second banana to the Adventurer, as he so often is in stories.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Short Stories. Whimsy. Hardback.

Mistress Masham’s Repose, by T. H. White. Illustrations by Fritz Eichenberg.

Now here is a White book we found everywhere in used bookstores; I got this copy (I think) from Yesterday’s Warehouse. Maria is heiress to the vast and ruinous estate of Malplaquet, where Cook (the last remaining domestic) has to ride a bicycle to get from the kitchen to the dining room. The crumbling, money-poor grounds are managed by Mr. Hater and Miss Braun, who are seeking for some way to swindle Maria out of her inheritance, and the poor girl’s lonely existence is only somewhat ameliorated by an absent-minded but enormously learned Professor who rents the gamekeeper’s cottage and surrounds himself with thousands of books. Malplaquet was once a rich and important place, visited by famous figures in history and literature, and one day in exploring an old pleasance on an island, Maria runs across a batch of Lilliputians straight out of “Gulliver’s Travels”. Much of the book tells about how the tiny people live, and the rest is Maria’s efforts to protect them, first from her own thoughtlessness and then from the exploitation of her greedy guardians. An examination of power and its perils, as well as an adventure tale.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Mary Poppins, by P. L. Travers. Illustrations by Mary Shepard.

You cannot be a student of classic children’s literature without having a copy of Mary Poppins. This secondhand copy is worn and a little stained. It is the only one of the series I have; there are seven others. There have been, of course, several adaptations, the most famous being the 1964 Disney movie, which was so successful that it had a rather disastrous effect, as there was then cranked out a number of lengthy musicals adapted from children’s books, with indifferent results, as producers tried to chase the Poppins money. Better and of more interest is “Saving Mr. Banks”, which follows Travers’ life story and Disney’s efforts to get the film made. Good book, but not precisely my cup of tea.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Nanny McPhee: The Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda, by Christianna Brand. Illustrated by Edward Ardizzone and stills from the movie.

I had heard of “Nurse Matilda” before thanks to Humphrey Carpenter, I think; it was somewhat in the ‘Mary Poppins’ tradition. After I saw the movie, which I greatly enjoyed, I decided to get the book – or should I say books, as this is an omnibus edition of the three in the series – and found, as usual, that movies and their source material can be very different critters. For all I know they may be very good books, but I lost interest and haven’t read them much.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Omnibus. Fantasy. Softcover.

The Three Royal Monkeys, by Walter de la Mare. Illustrations by Mildred E. Eldridge.

I got this book for 20 cents at a Seguin Library book sale. I had been aware of it for years, but there was something about the ambiance of this copy, its era of binding, that really drew me. And the price was certainly right. I had enjoyed de la Mare’s poetry for years and reading it I certainly found it was a poetic book. The story of Nod and his brothers journeying to a home they have never seen, Nod’s maturing as they adventure, and all the mystery and wonder they encounter, make it a tale for the ages. The original title is “The Three Mulla-Mulgars”, and the original illustrations were by Dorothy P. Lathrop; I would probably buy another copy if they had her pictures in it. I finally got Kenny to read it during one of his ‘read aloud on Facebook’ during the Covid-19 lockdown; I had been trying to get SOMEBODY else to read it for years. John drew Nod as one of the figures in one of his famous birthday drawings for me. [Lacks this jacket; library rebinding.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Phoenix and the Carpet, by E. Nesbit.

A Dell Yearling Classic, with an Afterword by Susan Cooper, who mentioned it in “The Dark is Rising”. “ The Phoenix and the Carpet is a fantasy novel for children, written by E. Nesbit and first published in 1904. It is the second in a trilogy of novels that begins with Five Children and It (1902), and follows the adventures of the same five children: Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane and the Lamb. Their mother buys the children a new carpet to replace one from the nursery that they have destroyed in an accidental fire. The children find an egg in the carpet, which hatches into a talking Phoenix. The Phoenix explains that the carpet is a magic one that will grant them three wishes a day. The five children go on many adventures, which eventually wears out their magic carpet. The adventures are continued and concluded in the third book of the trilogy, The Story of the Amulet (1906). – Wikipedia. I used to have an ‘Octopus’ book that had all three novels in it, but I must have thoughtlessly sold it or given it away.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

Anderson’s Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen. Select Tales, Translated by Mrs. E. V. Lucas and Mrs. H. B. Paull. Illustrations by Arthur Szyk.

If I must have an edition of Andersen’s literary fairy tales, it’s just as well it be this one. It is a companion volume to the old Grimm’s Fairy Tales we had since earliest childhood; it is illustrated by the great Arthur Szyk, and it is as old as 1947, if the inside inscription is to be trusted. Bought, I believe, from Yesterday’s Warehouse. A Grosset and Dunlap edition. A strange distant connection to Chesterton, as Mr. E. V. Lucas, a famous author in his time, was his childhood friend, and this was his wife.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fairy Tales. Hardback.

The Little Grey Men, by Denys Watkins-Pitchford. Illustrated by the Author.

“I picked this book up years ago from a place called Yesterday's Warehouse (since closed), something of an old curiosity shop, dedicated mainly to books. I'd never seen or heard of The Little Grey Men before, but rather liked the style of the illustrations and the general set-up (gnomes having adventures in the countryside and their rare interactions with human civilisation), so I bought it, enjoyed it well enough, and put it on my shelf. Only a couple of days ago I decided to put a few choice pictures from it on the blog, and thought I'd do a little research on the book and its author. I discovered that I was looking at the tip of an iceberg. The author, Denys Watkins-Pitchford, had written and illustrated some sixty books between 1937 and 1987. The Little Grey Men was published in 1942 and won the Carnegie Medal that year. Watkins-Pitchford, who only used his full name for credit as illustrator and preferred the short pseudonym of "BB" as an author, was author, illustrator, and 'countryman'; a sort of combination of naturalist, conservationist, and sportsman, and his books are renowned for their authentic detail. "BB" claimed that the inspiration for this book came from his actual sighting of a gnome when he was a small child. Whether he was serious or indulging in that sort of epic leg-pulling that is a certain element in English humor is unknown. Watkins-Pitchford passed away in 1990, but not before publishing a sequel (Down The Bright Stream), becoming a Member of the Order of the British Empire, and seeing a ten-part series adapted from The Little Grey Men on British television, called Baldmoney, Sneezewort, Dodder and Cloudberry, named after the gnomes in his book. His numerous books are still popular in the UK, and there is a society dedicated to his works.” – Power of Babel. [Lacks this jacket.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The World of Christopher Robin and The World of Pooh, by A. A. Milne. Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard.

I bought this pair as a selection from Paperback Book club. “Robin” is all poetry about childhood, centered around a fictionalized version of Milne’s son; “Pooh” is the collection of short stories featuring the celebrated teddy Bear. Milne was originally most famous for his work as a playwright; he also contributed work to ‘Punch’. Then Pooh came along and swallowed him up like the bear he is. Although he had and has many fans of his sentimental vision of childhood, the voices have not been unanimous. Dorothy Parker famously said in a review that she ‘fwowed up’ at what she considered its treacly and twee prose, and T. H. White called Milne ‘swinish’. Well, I love it. Not deeply, perhaps, but defensively. John used to have a Calendar (1973, if I’m correct) ordered from the Weekly Reader with poems and illustrations from the ‘Robin’ collection. The real Christopher Robin had some resentment toward his father for ‘manipulating’ his childhood; there is some evidence, as later stuffed animals (like Tigger) were bought with an eye of how they would fit into the cast of toys and wild animals that populate the Hundred Acre Wood. We used to have an old Scholastic copy of “The House at Pooh Corner”; I think it may still exist somewhere; I’m not sure.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Poetry/ Stories. Children’s Books. Softcovers.

Seaward, by Susan Cooper.

A Hardback ex-library copy that I got at Half-Price books. “His name is West. Her name is Cally. They speak different languages and come from different countries thousands of miles apart, but they do not know that. What they do know are the tragedies that took their parents, then wrenched the two of them out of reality and into a strange and perilous world through which they must travel together, understanding only that they must reach the sea. Together, West and Cally embark upon a strange and sometimes terrifying quest, learning to survive and to love—and, at last, discovering the true secret of their journey.” – Amazon. I so much wanted to love this book, because, hey, Susan Cooper, but perhaps I am too old for her magic to work so completely on me again. It’s okay, but not great; I wasn’t sure even after reading the paperback and had to get this Hardback when it became available, just in case. Now the paperback has the better cover, and this has the better form, so I’m not sure which I would choose if it came down to choosing.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

King of Shadows, by Susan Cooper.

“Nathan Field, a talented young actor, arrives at the newly rebuilt Globe theatre in London to play Puck in A Midsummer's Night's dream. As rehearsals begin, eerie echoes of the past begin to haunt Nat and he falls ill with a mysterious sickness. When he wakes, Nat finds himself in 1599, an actor at the original Globe - and his co-star is none other than the King of Shadows himself: William Shakespeare. Nat's new life is full of excitement, danger, and the passionate friendship that he has longed for since the tragic death of his parents. But why has he been sent to the past - and is he trapped there forever?” – Wikipedia. The answers are to help Shakespeare and no. A slightly better offering from Cooper, full of fine historical detail, and written, in a sense, for the 400^th anniversary re-opening of the Globe Theatre reconstruction.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.