Into the Archive: Illustrations and Reframes

Rackham's Color Illustrations for Wagner's "Ring" Paperback –

by Arthur Rackham (Illustrator)

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"His pictures, which seemed to me then [aged 13] to be the very music made visible, plunged me a few fathoms deeper into my delight. I have seldom coveted anything as I coveted that book." — C.S. Lewis
Before portraying Wagner's "Ring," Arthur Rackham (1867–1939) had become England's leading illustrator through his interpretations of fairy and fantastic books: Grimm's Fairy Tales, Rip van Winkle, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, A Midsummer-Night's Dream. With his insight into elves, twisted oaks, and bearded heroes, Wagner was the logical step: with the "Ring," Rackham brought his talent for ethereal watercolor and line into new realms of adult mythology.
This edition reproduces, in full color, all 64 watercolor illustrations from Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods (1911) and The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie (1912). The original English and American editions also contained black-and-white vignettes and tailpieces, a selection of which appear here: the original text, a dated English translation of the libretto, has been replaced by comprehensive descriptive captions and an introduction by James Spero.
Rackham poured all his mature fancy into the "Ring." The gnarled Nibelung Alberich sports with teasing Rhinemaidens, fiery Loge and lordly Wotan tussle with giants and serpents. An ecstatic Brünnhilde is finally consumed on Siegfried's funeral pyre in perhaps the most successful representation of this scene anywhere, either graphically or theatrically. Wagner's Teutonic forests and caves give Rackham free reign for his brooding, haunting nature backgrounds; characters, costumes, and all the tiny details are painted with such textual accuracy and empathy that today's opera companies who wish to return to staging the "Ring" in the traditional manner turn to Rackham's paintings for guidance.
The painstaking reproduction of these artworks brings Arthur Rackham's most heroic visions to the many collectors and admirers who cannot obtain the expensive out-of-print editions. With the aid of the clear captions, the Wagnerian cycle may be followed once again in its most time-honored and rich interpretation. - Amazon

Reframe Your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success (The Scott Adams Success Series) Paperback

by Scott Adams (Author), Joshua Lisec (Editor)

 

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In Reframe Your Brain, Scott Adams, the contrarian genius behind Dilbert and author of the most influential personal success book of all time—How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big—gives you the complete operating system for lasting happiness.

Are you familiar with this old saying?

“All publicity is good publicity.”

That’s a classic reframe. The quote shifts your thinking from the shame of whatever you did wrong to your probable benefit. You can’t change the past, but you can change how you feel about it.

Trained hypnotist and persuasion expert Scott Adams has packed more than 160 new, counterintuitive, and effective reframes into Reframe Your Brain. For example:

Usual Frame: Manage your time.

Reframe: Manage your energy.

Usual Frame: Success depends on who you know.

Reframe: Success depends on how many people you know.

Usual Frame: Your critics are evil monsters.

Reframe: Your critics are your mascots.

Usual Frame: The universe is acting against you.

Reframe: The universe owes you.

Usual Frame: Luck is random and can’t be managed.

Reframe: You can go where there is more luck (more energy).

These instant perspective-shifters will help you feel better on demand and succeed at any endeavor without the usual pain or pitfalls. The reframe collection covers personal fulfillment, business and career success, mental health, social activities, and physical well-being. If only 10 percent of the reframes work for you, your life will never be the same.

Prepare to embark on a journey of transformation as Scott Adams shares his most invaluable insights and practical techniques to date, empowering you to reprogram your own reality using words alone. - Amazon

I have had Rackham's 'Ring' Illustrations on the Wish List for a long time, but I must confess that I only finally ordered it so I would be eligible for free shipping. Still, it is nice to have all the pictures in one place.

But I was really intrigued with Scott Adams' Reframe Your Brain, not least because he has been reading thee reframes out on his show, Coffee with Scott Adams. They impress me as alternate narratives by which to understand one's life, not mindless peptalks but alternate and valid ways of looking at a situation. As he says, not all of them may apply to your situation, but if ten of them do your life will be improved. Maybe so, if I can remember to apply them.

Myths, Legends, and Scary Tales

The Golden Fleece (and the Heroes who Lived Before Achilles, by Padraic Colum. Illustrated by Willy Pogany.

I can visually locate in my memory exactly where I first found this book: behind the check-out desk in the main library at Briesemeister Middle School. (I was a library assistant there one year. They were only supposed to have two, but I refused to take any other elective, and they had to squeeze me in finally. I think they resented it. It’s hard to imagine anyone more needlessly haughty than a school librarian.) It was as much a visual experience as a literary experience, with its pictures of centaurs, harpies, and minotaur. Their “The Children of Odin” was right next to it. Together a very powerful influence indeed. I have to say – and I might as well say it here – that while I was growing up in the early 70’s there was not as much encouragement for myth and fantasy as there is today. Coming out of the disillusionment of Kennedy’s death and the scandal of Watergate a sort of ‘rancid realism’ set in, where we wouldn’t be fooled anymore by pretty stories or lying tales. ‘De-mythologizing’ and cynicism were the order of the day, and the teachers wouldn’t accept from us the patriotism our earlier teachers had taught us before. I felt that in following my own ways of fantasy and legend I was taking an older secret path away from that mess. And that’s what I have to say about this secondhand ex-library book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Mythology. Children’s Book. Hardback.

The Children of Odin, by Padraic Colum. Illustrations by Willy Pogany.

“Padraic Colum was an Irish author. I first read his books back in middle school, and his The Children of Odin was the first version of the Norse Myths I ever read.” – Power of Babel. For a long time, copies of this book were scarce on the ground, and I was more than happy to find this one. Of all the pictures in the book, Odin the Wanderer is the one that still leaps to mind when I think of this book, and the second is the look on Loki’s face as he eats the witch’s heart. Dwarfs, dragons, and eagles helped feed the Northern Thing inside me in this Time of Tolkien. Hard to exaggerate the influence of this book. [Not my cover, which lacks the jacket, but is this is like the one in middle school.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Myths. Norse. Hardback. 

Stories of King Arthur, by Blanche Winder.

Although it is missing its title page, this is a Hardback edition of the paperback mentioned elsewhere. Does not have the illustrations that I know exist in more deluxe versions: 16 Color plates and 8 other illustrations by Harry G. Theaker, that were adapted for the paperback. First published in 1935, under the title “King Arthur and His Knights”.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Legend. Arthurian. Hardback.

Irish Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs, Illustrated by John D. Batten.

This Wordsworth Classics Edition comprises stories selected by Jennifer Chandler of the Folklore Society from Jacob’s two-volume collection, Celtic Fairy Tales and More Celtic Fairy Tales, originally published in the last decade of the 19^th Century.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fairy Tales. Anthology. Softcover.

English Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

Can’t find who collected or selected (possibly Flora Annie Steel) this Wordsworth Classics book, but it definitely has the great artist’s line drawing and silhouette work.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Anthology. Fairy Tales. Softcover.

The Sea Serpents Around Us, Written and Illustrated by Lois and Louis Darling.

“I mentioned a book on sea serpents that I read back in grade school, and that I had been trying to hunt down for years. I remembered that it had been written and illustrated by a husband and wife team, was in black and white, and had been published before 1970. After an extensive search, I found a book I thought fit the bill, and at a venture sent off for it. It turned out to be the right one. The Sea Serpents Around Us, by Louis and Lois Darling, published 1965. Louis Darling is (or was) famous for illustrating all the Beverly Cleary books (Ramona, Ribsy, etc.) and The Mouse on The Motorcycle books. His wife Lois was a keen boatswoman and artist herself. Together they illustrated Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, the early environmentalist. It was undoubtedly their naturalist expertise on the ocean that made them such convincing illustrators for this book, and surely Lois is responsible for the little gems of accuracy of several period ships. The book itself starts with a wise old sea serpent putting its head on their boat while they're sailing one day. It tells them the history of sea serpents, including several famous examples like the Loch Ness Monster and the Manchester Sea Serpent. A whimsical ancestral chart is shown, which includes dinosaurs, dragons, and crocodiles. The authors explain that after bounties and rewards were placed on sea serpents’ heads, they all decided to go into hiding and pretend to be extinct. Much of the book is rather tongue-in-cheek, but to us it was a beginning introduction to cryptozoology, and one of the elements that put it over to us was the very solidity of the pictures.” – Power of Babel, 2008. I’m sure their fanciful “family tree” of dinosaurs, dragons, and sea serpents had an effect on similar drawings I did later.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Cryptozoology. Fantasy. Hardback.

Great Ghost Stories, Edited by Herbert Van Thal. Illustrated by Edward Pagram.

“It is a shabby cloth-bound red book. Pop brought it back from the dump in the late sixties. Why had it been thrown away? I begin to wonder, now ... Over the forty years it's been in the family it's been in the same shape; ragged, moldy, stained, it always seems on the verge of disintegrating but has never lost even a single page. And it is the scariest book in the whole world. Its title: Great Ghost Stories. Edited by Herbert Van Thal, illustrated by Edward Pagram, published by Hill and Wang, Inc., of New York in 1960. Haunting tales, especially the Lytton and Le Fanu. But what puts the extra horror on these stories are the illustrations. I don't know who this Pagram fellow was, but he manages to fill his pictures with more scabby, nebulous horror than all the air-brushed color pictures I ever saw since.” -Power of Babel. And I wouldn’t mind finding a new copy. [Not this cover.]

Ranking: Essentially Horrifying.

File Code: Ghost Stories. Anthology. Hardback.

The White Stag, Written and Illustrated by Kate Seredy.

“The White Stag is a children's book, written and illustrated by Kate Seredy. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature and received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. The White Stag is a mythical retelling that follows the warrior bands of Huns and Magyars across Asia and into Europe, including the life of Attila the Hun. Kate Seredy was born in Hungary and came to the United States at the age of twenty-three. Hungary again became the inspiration for The White Stag. Originally conceived after Seredy read a book on Hungarian history for children and found it dry, she says in the "Forward" that she wrote the book for "Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind and thunder, who want to see fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that faith can move mountains, can follow the thread on the pages of this book. It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and dates." Based on her father's favorite folktale about the founding of that country, The White Stag was written in just three weeks.” – Wikipedia. Very hard for me to see the Huns (especially Attila) as heroes, but I suppose everyone has their point of view. Bought this at Yesterday’s Warehouse. A lot of the pictures look like they should be illustrating an old Michael Moorcock story. The White Stag, however, is a haunting figure. [Lacks this jacket.]

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Legend. Novel. Hardback.

Witches, Witches, Witches, by Helen Hoke. Pictures by W. R. Lohse.

The Witch Itch at its itchiest. I read it back in grade school, and it horrified and allured me. So many classic witch stories and poems by such good writers. Some good witches, but mostly the cannibalistic monsters and evil plotters of darkest legend. Andrew Lang, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Joseph Jacobs, the Brothers Grimm – their witches met again later in other places and other collections but introduced here. The Hungry Old Witch, Gally Mander, The Horned Women, and Baba Yaga are all present. I found this copy totally by accident when Mike and I went into a San Antonio bookstore where I had located a copy of “The Visitors from Oz”, and I had to have it. The greens, purple, and blacks of the cover is Halloween incarnate. Hoke has several other anthologies I wouldn’t mind checking out, all with titles like “Monsters, Monsters, Monsters”, “Dragons, Dragons, Dragons”, “Devils, Devils, Devils”, and so on.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Witches. Anthology. Hardback.