Lore of Yore

The Leprechaun’s Kingdom, by Peter Haining. Another Peter Haining book, this one dated 1980, which sounds about right for the time of purchase. I was still in high school, and this is one of the few books that has my name in it – rather poorly written, in block letters. Was it done on the fly? Haining was one of a trio of retailers of old art and lore that I was interested in, along with Thomas G. Aylesworth and Daniel Cohen. This volume is dedicated to Irish creatures and stories. Ranking: Keeper. File Code: Nostalgic. Legend. Softcover.

Terror!: A History of Horror Illustrations from the Pulp Magazines, by Peter Haining Peter Haining was a constant and beloved name through the 70’s and 80’s for us. A super-fan and anthologist in the areas of horror, science fiction, fantasy, crime, Ireland, and Sherlock Holmes, his publications amounted to the sort of obsessive visual scrapbooks one could browse for hours. It is copyrighted 1976, but I think we bought this a little later. I think it was John who purchased it, though I always envied it, and later he gave it to me. I remember it being among John’s books on the old wonky shelves (that Pop built) that we took into the “boys’ room” from the garage. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Art. Horror. Softcover.

American Folklore and Legend (Reader’s Digest). I read this book in high school, and when I got a chance, got my own copy. The span of American traditions, from witchcraft to superheroes, has probably influenced my own book; I certainly used it for research. Ranking: Essential. File Code: Reference. Folklore. Hardback.

Giants, Illustrated by Julek Heller, Carolyn Scrace, and Juan Wijngard. Text by David Larkin. Another Abrams book in the vein of “Gnomes” and “Faeries”, this time on giants, including trolls and ogres. It was quite a rage in the late 1970’s. Again, the text is nothing, the pictures everything. And that’s about all I can say about it. Giants are not as … compelling, I guess is the word, or mysterious as other mythological creatures. They are big, stupid, greedy, blundering symbols of the crushing forces of nature, including the human bullies of life. They are nothing we can or should be in sympathy with or bow down before. A giant, as Chesterton might say, is for fighting. The art is pleasant enough, but not particularly enthralling. Ranking: Dispensable. File Code: Art. Folklore. Hardback.

The Wizard’s Book of Spells, by Beatrice Phillpotts, with Illustrations by Robert Ingpen. In the wake of Harry Potter, there were plenty of books that came out about wizards and magic, mostly regurgitating the old stuff in the hope of grabbing the coattails and getting some fairy gold out of the Wizarding craze. This was one of them; I got it for a dollar in the bargain bin when the hoopla slowed. Nicer than most as it collected and, in some cases, colorized a lot of the classic art and illustration into one spot, bridged with some decent new pictures. The cover is strangely puffy. A visual experience, mostly. It seems to me to be a spiritual descendant of Thomas G. Aylesworth’s book about alchemists. Ranking: Expendable. File Code: Art. Folklore. Magic. Hardback.