Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures

[Rackham, Arthur] Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur

Published by William Heinemann, London, 1913

About this Item

Quarto ( 10 1/4 x 7 5/8 in; 261 x 193 mm). Collating 43, [1]. Original gray green cloth pictorially stamped and lettered in gilt. In a later issue (1918) printed dust jacket (with the price "21/ - Net" as opposed to the first issue price of "15/ - Net") . Top edge stained gray. Small bump to fore edge of upper board Forty-four color plates (including frontispiece) mounted on tan paper, with descriptive tissue guards, and ten drawings in black and white. A Near Fine copy. Rackham's Book of Pictures is a collection of illustrations that fully encapsulates the artist's classic style: From goblins and fairies to mystical atmospheric landscapes, there's an image to suit everyone's tastes in this survey. The introduction by Arthur Quiller-Couch set's out the books contents-not a biography but a celebration of Rackham's artistry. Rackham initially approached J. M. Barrie to write the introduction, but dude to scheduling conflicts Barrie turned down the offer and Arthur Quiller-Couch was found as a replacement. Not only did he admire "Rackham's work; he also thoroughly understood a child's instinctive longing for the imaginative and fanciful. 'To this instant, constant, intellectual need of childhood no one in our day,' he wrote, 'has ministered so bountifully or so whole-heartedly as Mr. Rackham.' And Quiller-Couch was happy, too, in associating the random, impressionistic nature of much of the Book of Pictures with 'the wayward visions that tease every true artist's mind, while he bends over the day's work'" (Hudson). Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) is perhaps the most acclaimed and influential illustrators of the Golden Age of Illustration. A prolific artist even from his youth, Rackham got his start as an illustrator working for the Westminster Budget Newspaper (1892). Over the next few years, he took on more and more commissions for children's books, hitting his career high in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Rackham turned his imaginative pen to every classic-from Shakespeare to Dickens to Poe. Latimore and Haskell 41-42. Riall 118.

Seller Inventory # 3740

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Arthur Rackham's Book of Pictures
• Publisher: William Heinemann, London
• Publication Date: 1913
• Edition: First trade edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: dj
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • Illustrated Books