The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
(“The Four Novels and Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete.
Lavishly illustrated with maps, diagrams, photographs, and drawings. Edited,
with an Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography by William S. Baring-Gould.”)
Includes the famous Sidney Paget illustrations. This volume made all my other
Sherlock Holmes books superfluous, including a boxed set of paperbacks (from
John’s collection) and a hardback with all the Strand illustrations. It seems
superfluous to explain the Sherlock Holmes mythos; I can only say it deeply
influenced me from my childhood on up, from the Basil Rathbone movies to dozens
of cartoon episodes. The unflappable eccentric smarty-pants seemed an admirable
role model. Where’s my magnifying glass?
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated Edition. Hardback.
The Annotated Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.
With the classic Charles Leech illustrations, and many
others. With an Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography by Michael Patrick Hearn.
Another lifelong influence, with no less than three animated adaptations during
my childhood, as well as the Alastair Sim movie. Inescapable at Christmas time.
The annotations clarify many of the everyday Victorian references and explicate
some of the more obscure humor.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Classic. Novel. Annotated. Hardback.
The Annotated Dracula, by Bram Stoker.
Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography by Leonard Wolf (of “A
Dream of Dracula” fame), with Illustrations by Satty, as well as many
contemporary pictures to illustrate places and items of the time, and frames
from film adaptations of the book. I must admit I out-and-out stole this book.
I stole many library books when I was in high school. A surprising number,
really. I can only plead that I was a very insecure person at the time (even
more insecure than I am now, I mean), I believed no-one else cared for the
books more than I, and I had already seen many of my favorite books vanish into
the past and I saw no means of recovering them, (this was so long before
ordering over the internet was a concept, and even before I considered trying
to order them from a bookstore – besides which, I was so poor). That being said,
I knew it was wrong, and it became a terrible habit, to where I was even taking
books I didn’t care about that much. But to get back to the book, it allowed me
to finally get into Dracula, and is still the only copy I care to read it in.
Wolf’s annotations are like having a murmuring expert’s voice feeding you
smooth information as you read and coming to your aid when things are most
puzzling. It’s no wonder I was enamored. [My copy lacks this jacket.]
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated. Novel. Hardback.
The Annotated Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.
Annotated by Leonard Wolf, terrible art by Marcia Huyette.
With Maps, Drawings, and Photographs. The text is the original 1818 edition,
before Mary tarted it up and softened it for the 1831 edition. The annotations
enliven the somewhat turgid prose, and act as a semi-biography of Mary as it
explores her influences and allusions. Just the sort of smarty-pants stuff I
like to read. It is sort of a companion counterpart to “The Annotated Dracula”,
and I found it years later (quite recently, in fact) at Half-Price books.
Reading it has been like a blast from the past; it is one of those books that I
sometimes find that I WOULD have read at a certain period if it had been
available to me. The boobies in the Huyette 70’s-style ‘art’ explain why it
wasn’t at high school. I used to have a paperback with a Karloff-inspired
cover. This made it obsolete. [My copy lacks this jacket.]
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Novel. Annotated. Hardback.
The Annotated Mother Goose, with an Introduction and Notes by
William S. Baring Gould and Cecil Baring-Gould.
“Illustrated by Caldecott, Crane, Greenaway, Rackham, Parrish,
and Historical Woodcuts.” Read this first in the college library, and as soon
as I found a copy, bought it. An exhaustive collection of the classic rhymes,
both famous and obscure, and fascinating notes on the folklore, history, and
local associations that they invoke. Rivalled only by Iona and Peter Opie’s
Oxford collection and surpasses them in illustration. A glorious browser and
resource. I remember having Kenny read from it to me while I washed dishes, on
the eve of him leaving for Florida. There’s a tape recording of this somewhere
in my stuff.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Folklore.
Annotated. Hardback.
Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”, Illustrated by
Henry Holiday.
Includes “The Annotated Snark by Martin Gardner”, The Designs
for the Snark by Charles Mitchell, The Listing of the Snark by Selwyn H.
Goodacre” and was edited by James Tanis and John Dooley. I love the Snark; I
had Kenny read it to me once while I cleaned up the garage. That was a thing I
did: did people’s work for them so I could get them to read books that I
thought they’d Enjoy. Mom read me most of “The Lord of the Rings” while I
painted the house on Loop Drive before Kelsey was born. I bought this annotated
edition at the college bookstore, where its jacket was already a little torn.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Humorous Poem. Annotated. Hardback.
The Annotated Ancient Mariner: The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
“Illustrated by Gustave Dore, with an Introduction and Notes
by Martin Gardner.” I read this compelling supernatural ballad for the first
time in high school and became entranced by its incantatory cadence’s wild
imagery. Dore was already pretty familiar to me through the reproduction of his
work in just about every “monster” book produced in the 70’s (copyright free).
That I could find them in an inexpensive annotated edition at Half-Price Books
was cake. I loves me an annotated edition. Besides the Notes (revealing much
about Coleridge and his circle) there are some large reproductions of the
plates, showing off the fine detail.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Poetry. Annotated. Hardback.
The Annotated Brothers Grimm, Edited with a Preface and Notes
by Maria Tatar.
Not the complete Grimm’s fairy tales of course, but the major
stories, and a few of the stranger and more problematic tales. I used to have a
complete edition, put together by Jack Zipes, which I gave to Kameron. I have
to either get it back (no matter that it’s a worse shape now) or find another
copy (not difficult; it turns up at Half-Price fairly regularly). Anyway, full
of good notes and classic illustrators, like Hermann Vogel. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated Edition. Fairy Tales. Hardback.
The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, By Lewis
Carroll.
Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner. Original
Illustrations by John Tenniel. Has both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Includes the deleted
section, A Wasp in a Wig. A portion devoted to screen adaptations of Alice.
There were older versions of this (I had one), but this is Definitive. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.
Alice is just one of those cultural milestones that has no need of explanation,
though I have to admit I never read the actual book until high school;
Tenniel’s illustrations freaked me out a little when I was young.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated. Children’s Book. Hardback.
The Annotated Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Patrick
Hearn. Preface by Martin Gardner. Pictures by W. W. Denslow. The Wizard of Oz
is foundational to my imagination, from the yearly showing of the MGM movie to
my first Whitman copy of the book when I could hardly even read to the constant
new editions I buy when a brilliant new illustrator interprets it. I wanted to
get an older edition of this annotated but I’m glad I didn’t; this is much
prettier. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers. Much about
Baum and Oz, much about Denslow, much about the cultural impact of Oz. A
scholarly and insightful look at a childhood classic.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated Edition. Novel. Hardback.
The Annotated Peter Pan: The Centennial Edition, by J. M.
Barrie.
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Maria Tatar.
Illustrated from many different editions, and photos from Barrie’s life. As a
book, “Peter Pan” has gone through some strange permutations, including “The
Little White Bird”, “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens”, and the play itself,
which came before this novelized version. There is much biographical detail
about Barrie and his career, and what might seem his almost cursed relationship
with the family of the boy that Peter was based on. I had little to do with
“Peter Pan” beyond the Disney version for years (Mom had some old kids records’
she got as a little girl when the movie just came out; we played them quite a
bit when we were kids. I remember how wistful she was when ‘Your Mother and
Mine’ played; probably thinking about her relationship with Nanny). In college
I became quite interested in the history of children’s literature, especially that
period that started to romanticize childhood, so I read the book at last,
confusing as its history was. This edition also addresses its cultural impact,
its TV and movie adaptations, and psychological insights. A meditation on life,
death, and the poignant wonder and sterility of never growing up. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated Edition. Children’s Book. Hardback.
The Annotated Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.
Edited with a Preface and Notes by Annie Gauger. Introduction
by Brian Jacques. While I had known Mr. Toad since at least the 1970
Rankin/Bass TV show and the Disney Big Golden book in 3rd grade, I
never actually read the novel until middle school, when I was enchanted as much
by the poetic pastorals of the River and Woods as by the comic adventures of
Toad. The tension that Mole feels between the wanderlust and adventure of Toad
and the domesticity usually exemplified by Rat and his comfy lodgings is the
same force that constantly bedeviled Grahame and led to his writing works in
escapist style as he worked a dreary job in the Bank of England. The headstrong
Toad was based on his son Alistair, who, almost in a tradition of such literary
children, died an early tragic death at the age of 20. This edition is full of
illustrations from all over (especially by Ernest Shepherd) and amounts to a
biography of Grahame almost on its own. One of the beautiful
Norton editions, with gilded covers.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated Edition. Children’s Classic. Hardback.
The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Edited with an
Introduction and Notes by Michael Patrick Hearn.
Illustrated by F. W. Kemble and with photographs and other
drawings. I didn’t really care much for Mark Twain’s work through the years,
except for a sneaky attachment to the Classics Illustrated “A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, and that was more for the ambiance of knights
and castles. There was no Fantasy in Tom Sawyer, either, except if you count
what went on in that romantic noodle of his. There was, of course, “The New
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, an American live-action and animated television series that
originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1968,
through February 23, 1969,” but that hardly counts. There was of course “Tom
Sawyer … a 1973 American musical film adaptation of Mark Twain's 1876 boyhood adventure
story, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, directed by Don
Taylor and starring Johnny Whitaker as the titular character, Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher, and Jeff East as Huckleberry Finn. The film was produced by Reader's Digest. The film's screenplay and songs
were written by Robert B. Sherman and Richard
M. Sherman who
would go on to provide more award-winning music for the 1974 sequel Huckleberry Finn.” – Wikipedia. But that was hardly a recommendation. We also
had two Whitman’s Classics copies of the books. As I got older, I guess I
considered Huckleberry Finn more in Mike’s wheelhouse of American literature.
Its very status as a classic scared me off. Of course, I eventually read ‘Finn’
(I don’t think I’ve ever brought myself to have a complete read-through of
‘Tom’[though I have now, as of September 2020]), and this Annotated edition
certainly helped clinch it for me. I’ve read quite a bit of Twain now. A
journey by raft is well-cemented into my mind’s playing. One
of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Classic. Annotated. Hardback.
The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster.
Illustrated by Jules Feiffer.
Annotations by Leonard S. Marcus. Ironically, not one of the
beautiful Norton editions. “The Phantom Tollbooth is a children's
fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, published in 1961 by Random House (USA). It tells the story of a
bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and, having
nothing better to do, drives through it in his toy car, transporting him to the
Kingdom of Wisdom, once prosperous but now troubled. There, he acquires two
faithful companions and goes on a quest to restore to the kingdom its exiled
princesses—named Rhyme and Reason—from the Castle in the Air. In the process,
he learns valuable lessons, finding a love of learning.” – Wikipedia. A modern
classic, most popular during the 60’s and 70’s (There was a movie animation
adaptation by Chuck Jones in 1970, just too early for us to see it; watched it
on TMC years later. Feiffer called it ‘drivel’. Starred Butch Patrick – Eddie
Munster and Lidsville - as hero Milo.) This edition replaced a raggedy old Book
Club edition.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated. Children’s Classic. Hardback.
The Screwtape Letters: Annotated Edition, by C. S. Lewis.
Annotations by Paul McCusker. It was Lewis, so I had to have
it, though at this point there is little new that the notes can reveal to me. “[I]
delight in such things, if they were accurate; I like to have books filled with
things that I already know, set out fair and square with no contradictions.” –
Not-Quite-Tolkien. I like an annotated edition. No illustrations, though, not
even photos.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Annotated Edition. Hardback.
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