This
Wednesday (December 28th) John and I got together to visit, and we
decided (as I has some Christmas gift money burning in my pocket) to check out
the few places where books are still available in town. I had no high hopes of
any good finds (the pleasure of the brotherly company was the main point of the
jaunt) but we came back with some surprisingly good acquisitions.
The
first place we went was the Seguin Public Library used bookstore. It is
generally a good place to find a decent mix of old and new volumes, and it did
not disappoint. I left with a total of five books for $12, all in very good
shape.
First
off there were a couple of slim Fantasy art books, The Fantastic Art of
Boris Vallejo and Dreamquests: The Art of Don Maitz. These were not
some of my especially favorite artists, but their work was everywhere on book
covers and magazines when I was younger and looking at their work definitely
conjures up a time. Vallejo’s statuesque blonde and her giant lizards were
everywhere, on book and magazine covers, and even as a poster for a completely
unrelated movie. Don Maitz’s picture of two vampiric brothers was on an issue
of Eerie, which prompted my post yesterday on that subject; his artwork, too, was on covers and in magazines. Yes, they’re
rather cheesy, but cheese can be a healthy part of a diet, especially aged
cheese such as this.
Then
there were a couple of classic volumes whose nice binding particularly caught
my attention. Say what you will about the publishing industry, but a definite
advance has been made in the binding of soft covers. The Thurber Carnival
makes a good reading version compared to the old hardback I have (also
purchased at the library bookstore). And because I have been branching out into
Russian Literature in my old age, The Essential Tales of Chekhov looks
like to be a handy sampler of his short stories.
But
the most unexpected prize found here was a hardback copy of The Book of the
Dun Cow. This looks to be an original copy of the 1978 printing! The paper dust
jacket is in surprisingly good shape for being over 40 years old. I’ve had a
paperback copy since 1979; this is a definite upgrade.
The next place we visited was The Cranny, a small thrift store tucked away in the desolate wasteland of the old Seguin Crossroads Mall on the edge of town. The thick, swirling mass of leaves and litter that greeted us there did not bode well. We left that place empty-handed; there were a few things that lured (like a clumsily packaged audio version of The Hobbit on CD) but ultimately seemed not worth the risk.
Our
visit to the Seguin Goodwill was a little more propitious. I found a hardback copy
of Tolkien’s Roverandom with a somewhat damaged jacket that I insisted
on buying for John, since he didn’t have a copy. I think it might very well be
the first American edition. Anyway, I couldn’t leave that unlikely orphan
behind. There were a couple of juvenile tie-ins to the Peter Jackson Tolkien films,
but I was able to resist. But what I found next completely astounded me.
I
have written lately about the first paperback copy of T. H. White’s The Once
and Future King that I had back in middle school, the old tie-in to the musical
Camelot. Here (as if summoned by the memory) was a copy of the identical
book! It was in fairly good shape, too, for a 54-year-old paperback. I had
forgotten the black spine and the photo on the back cover, and it looked a tad
thinner than I recalled, but it was it. Well, for only $2 I had to have it. It
seemed like fate.
And those, barring any unforeseen circumstances, are my last books of 2022. It has been an interesting time. It is odd; I have almost totally cleared my Wish List on Amazon, and I go into the New Year with few impending purchases on the horizon, and none that are urgent, always excepting the impending The Homecoming of Beorthnoth at the end of March. But that’s in the almost unimaginable future; that’s next year.
The Scandalmonger (1952)
by T. H. White, is the sequel to his book, The Age of Scandal (1950). As
he presents it, the Age of Scandal was that little stretch between the Age of
Reason and the Age of Romance, with some overlap in time either way with
precursors and relics. He draws the end line with Queen Victoria, who he sees
as the last epitome of the eccentrics, individualists, and extreme
personalities of the Age.
“From his further
explorations of the Age of Scandal, T. H. White has returned with some
remarkable specimens. The eccentrics among them are hardly more conspicuous
than the men and women who, at this distance, seem representative of the
eighteenth century. They had no, or few, inhibitions. At work or play, in debt
or in love, they expended a vitality which we should find it hard to match. Mr.
White exhibits them at their best and their worst. His subjects include Duels,
Dogs, Public Executions, Blue Stockings, Bribery and Corruption; his personages
Horace Walpole, George Selwyn, Beau Brummel, the Chevalier d’Eon, Fanny Burney,
Mary Shelley, Mrs. Thrale . . .” – GoodReads.
I have had a copy of The Age
of Scandal for some time and was glad to find an inexpensive copy of this
sequel. Its condition explains its price; this 70-year-old volume lacks a book
jacket, is a little loose in the binding, and has rings on the cover that
suggest it was used as a coaster for a cup and a plate. But it is still very
readable (both in subject and condition) and these marks merely make it plain
to me that it was used and enjoyed.
The previous owner (Richard
C. Baily, according to his cat-standing-on-books bookplate) at one time
(probably when it started to fall apart) cut the book-cover into parts (the
front cover, spine, and descriptive book-flap) and taped them inside. The volume
includes black-and-white illustrations, many of them caricatures from the period
that reveal the grotesqueries of the age. The hardback cover is a dimmed,
rather royal red with tarnished gold lettering.
White marshals the anecdotes
and gossip of the time into a compulsively readable, chatty narrative, now and
then comparing and contrasting the Age to the Fifties in which he lived, and
trying to mediate an understanding between the two. It is not so much a history
as making a plate of the good bits off a banquet table to give you an idea and
a taste of what you can find.
It reminds me inevitably of
his book Mistress Masham’s Repose (1946), a story that takes place in a
vast Georgian house reminiscent of his description of Stowe in Chapter IX. Masham
impressed C. S. Lewis so favorably (White’s more famous book, The Sword in
the Stone, had simply annoyed him, apparently) that he invited him to a meeting
of the Inklings in 1947. Whether White
ever attended is not known, but there is no positive evidence that he did. But
what a What If!
“We cannot build the future
by avenging the past.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King.
The Sword in the Stone, by T. H. White. Endpapers by Robert
Lawson, Decorations by T. H. White.
The only date inside is “1939” and I must take it as
accurate; probably a book club edition, as it was a Book-of-the-Month Club
selection at the time. I read the book itself in middle school; I remember
reading it at lunchtime in the Drama room. Of course, I had seen the Disney
movie and been enchanted, but this was a whole other experience. Full of whimsy
and adventure, and White’s incomparable version of Merlyn. “The best thing for
being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn
something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and
trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the
disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world
about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the
sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn
why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can
never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust,
and never dream of regretting.” This is the version of the book before it was
rewritten for “The Once and Future King.”
Ranking: Oh, So Essential.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.
The Sword in the Stone, by T. H. White. Cover by Alan Lee.
I only found out fairly recently that the original Collier
edition of this book was different from the version edited for American
consumption, rather like Rowling’s Harry Potter books at a later date. This is
a reprint of that version, and very surprising and interesting I found it too.
Not too different, but interesting differences.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.
The Once and Future King, by T. H. White.
For a long while I only had paperback copies of this book,
first one with the horrible romance-novel cover of the poster of Camelot, then
the more acceptable version with a Frederic Marvin cover. I was glad to finally
get this edition at a San Marcos book sale recently. It is an 18th
printing, and I can’t help but feel it is much older than the “1980” gift inscription
inside, but after 1963, because it mentions White’s death. The impact of this
book both on fantasy literature and popular culture in general is even now hard
to calculate. Growing ever more serious from the buffoonery of ‘The Sword in
the Stone’ (here rewritten to include ants and geese, replacing Madame Mim and
Galapas the Giant) to the stark tragedy of ‘The Candle in the Wind’, this was
White’s magnum opus. There is some age and repair on this copy.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Novel. Historical Fantasy. Hardback.
The Book of
Merlyn, by T. H. White. Illustrations by Trevor Stubley. Prologue by Sylvia
Townsend Warner.
The release of this book was a big deal when I was just starting high school. The ‘lost chapter’ had long been a matter of lore among White enthusiasts. It coincided very well with the new surge of Fantasy that was taking place just then. It was supposed to be the concluding book in a teratology – a five book series – but when his editors wouldn’t accept it (partly because of post-war paper shortages) he jammed some parts into the rewrites of ‘The Once and Future King’ rather than lose them. He says he suddenly saw that the theme of his Arthurian books was finding an antidote to war, and that animals do not have war, so bringing Arthur and Merlyn and the animals from the first book back to examine the question would bring the story full circle, ‘perfect and rounded and whole’. The book suffers a bit from lacking an author’s final polish. It is Warner, I think, who suggested reading the original ‘Sword’ first, then the next three books of ‘King’, and then ‘Book’ to get an idea of what White originally wanted. [Lacks this jacket.]
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Fantasy. Philosophy. Novel. Hardback.
The
Maharajah and Other Stories, by T. H. White.
A collection
of his short fictions, including ‘The Troll’, which Mrs. Rector read to us in
middle school. What was that class called? [John says it was simply ‘Ghost
Stories’] White’s imagination is rather dark, and most of these tales are grim
and a bit tragic, when they are not ironically amused. I bought this copy in
the sale bin at Hastings, long ago.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code:
Short Stories. Anthology. Hardback.
Letters to a
Friend, by T. H. White. Selected and Edited by Francois Gallix.
“Presents a
selection of the correspondence between White and L. J. Potts, the author's
mentor, advisor, critic, and devoted friend from White's second year at
Cambridge to the end of Potts's life.” – Google Books. Represents just a
remnant of survivors, as most of the correspondence between White and Potts was
lost thanks to storage in a leaky garden shed. White based much of the
character of Merlyn in his Arthurian books on his old teacher and confidant.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code:
Letters. Literature/Biography. Hardback.
England Have
My Bones, by T. H. White.
A diary in
the form of novel about White’s efforts learning to hunt, to fish, to fly an
airplane, and to drive a car (it ends with an unfortunate car accident) all
told with an eye to the details of his personal experiences and the nature
around him. Illustrated by the author.
Ranking:
Keeper.
File Code:
Autobiography. Hardback.
The Goshawk,
by T. H. White. Illustrated by the Author.
T. H. White
himself was aware that he was a man of many manias and enthusiasm, entering
into each, one gaining a working knowledge (if seldom an expert knowledge) of
each, then picking up the next like a new toy. Among his more permanent hobbies
was as an austringer, or trainer of hawking birds. This book records his first
efforts as such, with a goshawk he named Gos, and which he tried to train
according to a medieval manual and method. This was much more complicated than
it needed to be (according to modern falconers) but gave him great insight for
use in his Arthurian stories.
Ranking:
Keeper.
File Code:
Natural History. Novel. Softcover.
The Book of
Beasts, by T. H. White. Illustrated by pictures from Medieval manuscripts.
“Of The
Book of Beasts, White writes: "No Latin prose bestiary has ever
before been printed, even in Latin. This is the first
and only English translation in print." The bestiary was
a bestseller in the Middle Ages, a kind of natural history cum-zoological
survey that presumed to describe the animals of the world and to point out the
human traits they exemplified. Combining the surprisingly accurate with the
endearingly phantasmagorical, the bestiarists came up with a bewildering array
of real and exotic creatures. The behavior or attributes of the animals often
functioned as a metaphor for teaching religious, moral, and political precepts.
In addition to a multitude of real mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish,
described here with varying degrees of zoological accuracy, the bestiarist introduces
a swarm of fanciful denizens thought to haunt the Dark Ages: manticore, a
creature with a man's face, a lion's body, and a ravenous appetite for human
flesh; dragon or draco, the biggest serpent
and the embodiment of the Devil; amphivia, a fish that could
walk on land and swim in the sea; jaculus, a flying serpent;
the familiar phoenix; the griffin; and other exotic
fauna. Much of the charm of this edition lies in the copious footnotes compiled
by T. H. White. With immense erudition, wit, grace, and a singular lack of
condescension, the author illuminates literary, scientific, historical,
linguistic, and other aspects of the bestiarist's catalog. He further enhances
the volume with informative discussions of the history of the bestiary from its
origins in remote oral traditions; through Herodotus, Pliny and Aristotle;
during the medieval period and the Renaissance; and up to Sir Thomas
Browne's Vulgar Errors (1646). Both amusing and amazing, The
Book of Beasts is not only a rich survey of the proto-zoology on which
much of our later science is based, but also a revealing, illustrated
examination of how pre-scientific man perceived the earth's creatures.” –
Amazon. Right up my alley. Found this copy at Yesterday’s Warehouse; it had a
rather frail dustjacket that I removed and preserve in the files.
Ranking:
Essential.
File Code:
Bestiary. Medieval. Hardback.
The Age of
Scandal: An Excursion Through a Minor Period, by T. H. White.
“This
amusing foray into eighteenth century literature is an entertaining tabloid
biography of an age not unlike our own; men and women of fashion led their
lives under the avid scrutiny of a public with a sharp appetite for scandal and
sensation. In the period between the so-called Age of Reason and the Romantic
Revival - that which the author calls the Age of Scandal - aristocratic and
privileged eccentrics flourished. Here we meet notorious persons such as the
libertine Marquis de Sade, and the Countess of Kingston who journeyed to Rome
in the hope of seducing the Pope.” - Amazon. Has a companion piece I would like
to get, “The Scandalmonger”. [Lacks this jacket.]
Ranking:
Keeper.
File Code:
History. Gossip. Hardback.
One of his
early potboiler novels, and a look at life during the Victorian era as seen
through the eyes of one man. Can’t say as I’ve read it. Pictures from “The
Illustrated London News” and “Punch”.
Ranking:
Keeper?
File Code:
Novel. Historical. Softcover.
The Master,
by T. H. White.
A second-hand ex-library book. “It
involves two children, Judy and Nicky, and their dog Jokey, who are stranded
on Rockall, an extremely small, uninhabited,
remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean.
They find that it is hollow and inhabited by a mysterious person who aims to
take over the world … The Master: 157 years old, he communicates by telepathy,
which he can also use to control people's minds. He has invented a kind of
vibrator-ray to take over the world … In trying to impress upon the children
the meaning of the Master's great age, Mr. Frinton says: "Dr. Moreau was experimenting on his island and
the Iron
Pirate was
at sea and She was living her immortal life in
Africa when the Master was about ninety. Stevenson wrote Treasure Island when he was eighty-four. Captain Nemo was sailing in the Nautilus when he was seventy. Henry
Russell Wallace [sic]
thought of the origin of species when he was around sixty. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when he was coming of age, and
at the battle
of Waterloo he
was four years older than you are.” The children of course manage to stymie the
Master’s plans almost by sheer luck. The book is … rather uneven but has its
good parts.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Science Fiction. Novel. Hardback.
The Godstone and the Blackymor, by T. H. White. Illustrations
by Edward Ardizzone.
“God
knows what this book is about. I suppose it’s a bit of autobiography
really. But it’s about living on the West Coast of Ireland, in ‘the parish
nearest to America’ – they all are, I mean the parishes – and it is about
the people and things there, more than about me. I stumbled across what
Protestants had said was an idol still being worshipped by the Catholics, and a
coal-black Negro selling patent medicines, and a real Fairy Fire which lit our
footsteps over the infinite bog – no whimsy. I did a lot of goose-shooting
and falconry and salmon fishing. I went on pilgrimages and drank a lot and
made friends and found out what I could and thought about it. I got
ashamed of killing things. It seems to me a complicated sort of book about
a complicated place, which I loved, and anyway it has pictures
by Ardizzone, who loved it too.” – T. H. White. [Lacks this jacket.]
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Biography. Travel. Hardback.
T. H. White: A Biography, by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
I first read this book in high school and was rather shocked
with what I found out about White, which did not jibe with the image his books
gave of him at all. It went far to stretching the boundaries of my
understanding and my sympathies. A man tormented and struggling with his
sadomasochism and his homosexuality, always seeking out relationships where he
would be the dominant partner (an uneducated barmaid when he was determined to
try to be straight; in his imagination with the schoolboy ‘Zed’ whom he
befriended; with a poor Italian gigolo when he passed through Europe). All the
same he has his own personal sense of honor and a tenderness that is frequently
winning; it is no wonder he had so many good friends. A life of writing pursued
by hook or by crook, through financial ups and downs and always just a few
steps from a depression fought with heroic persistence, this insightful
biography by Warner still stands as THE life of White. Photos and drawings by
White.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Biography. Literature. Hardback.
The Age of Scandal: An
Excursion Through a Minor Period by
T. H. White
This amusing foray into
eighteenth-century literature is an entertaining tabloid biography of an age
not unlike our own; men and women of fashion led their lives under the avid
scrutiny of a public who had a sharp appetite for scandal and sensation. In the
period between the so-called Age of Reason and the Romantic Revival ... that
which the author calls the Age of Scandal ... aristocratic and privileged
eccentrics flourished and the professional writer declined. Here we meet
notorious persons such as the Marquis de Sade; the Duke of Queensberry; who
dislocated London's milk supply; and the countess of Kingston, who journeyed to
Rome in the hope of seducing the Pope. There are also lesser figures like the
Misses Gunning, who were so beautiful that seven hundred people sat up all
night to see them leave an inn. T.H. White contends that these cultivated and
fortunate individuals, best represented by Horace Walpole, were Elizabethan in
their natures, without the formality of Alexander Pope or the exaggerated raptures
of William Wordsworth. - Amazon
THE SCANDAL-MONGER by T.H.
White
From his further explorations of the Age of
Scandal, T. H. White has returned with some remarkable specimens. The
eccentrics among them are hardly more conspicuous than the men and women who,
at this distance, seem representative of the eighteenth century. They had no,
or few, inhibitions. At work or play, in debt or in love, they expended a
vitality which we should find it hard to match. Mr. White exhibits them at
their best and their worst. His subjects include Duels, Dogs, Public
Executions, Blue Stockings, Bribery and Corruption; his personages Horace
Walpole, George Selwyn, Beau Brummel, the Chevalier d’Eon, Fanny Burney, Mary
Shelley, Mrs. Thrale . . .
If White's earlier book could be described as a "chronicle of humorous and
shocking scandal" (John Betjeman) what shall be said of this continuation
of it? What can be said — except that it will not disappoint those many readers
who relished the flavour of The Age of Scandal. – GoodReads.
Darkness at
Pemberley by T. H. White
Darkness at Pemberly was
first published in England in 1932, at which time it received excellent
reviews. It successfully combined two important story trends of the period: an
intellectual puzzle (one of the more ingenious locked-room puzzles of the
decade) and an action plot that any of the major mystery story writers of the
day would have been proud of. – Amazon.
America At Last: The American Journal Of T. H. White by T. H.
White, David Garnett
Introduction by David Garnett. His last book, a journal written during his American transcontinental lecture tour. – Amazon.
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 400th anniversary re-opening of the Globe Theatre
reconstruction.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.
