Pepper and Salt & The Wonder Clock Format: Hardcover

This handsome box set brings together The Wonder Clock, one of the Pyle siblings’ more delightful combined efforts, and Pepper and Salt, a collection of Pyle’s wonderfully imaginative fairy tales and fables. A perfect Christmas gift, it will help a new generation rediscover the immense gifts of one of America’s best children’s storytellers.

Howard Pyle (1853–1911), one of America’s great illustrators, founded the hugely influential “Brandywine School” of illustration and was mentor to N.C. Wyeth, among many others. No less a talent with prose than with ink and paint, Pyle first gained national renown for his magazine drawings, and then for his literature, in particular for the many children’s stories and serialized novels he wrote for a variety of major publications, including St. Nicholas Magazine, Harper’s Young People, and Scribner’s. His accompanying illustrations ranged from realistic engravings for medieval sagas (Otto of the Silver Hand and Men of Iron) to his distinctive and decorative woodcut-style drawings and lettering for classic folk tales (The Story of King Arthur and His Knights and The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood). Katharine Pyle (1863–1938)—like her brother a talented writer and artist—was often his collaborator in publishing beautiful books.