King Arthur

I had an email from Amazon to tell me the Dover 'Arthur Illustrated' which I have on pre-order, is delayed indefinitely. Not to long I hope. Has anyone seen the illustrations by Roman Pisarev for the Folio Society 'Legends of King Arthur'? - they are really quite special. From an earlier era I rather like these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36267377@N05/sets/72157615699156380/

Pageboy, my Amazon account still shows a shipping estimate of March 31 for "Visions of Camelot ..."--I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, thank you for the link. Beatrice Clay's (an unknown to me) illustrations remind me of Howard Pyle's and Louis Rhead's Arthur pictures. My favorite so far is N. C. Wyeth's work for "A Boy's King Arthur."

I didn't know Roman Pisarev's work until now either, and it's really something. Thanks again for starting this group--I'm learning a lot!

Thank you, bluereader, I too am keeping my fingers crossed. I'd love to see the Louis Read and Wyeth images. Have you ever seen Rhead's 'Pilgrim's Progress'?

I hope the Dover book (which is on its way to me!) includes Rhead's and Wyeth's artwork so you can enjoy them. Here are samples of Wyeth's work (only one is from The Boy's King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table): http://www.imagenetion.net/matrix/ncwyeth1.htm

I haven't come across Rhead's work on "The Pilgrim's Progress" (not even online--I tried looking), but his Robin Hood illustrations are right up there with his Arthur ones. I'm sure glad the Book-of-the-Month Club reprinted these two books years ago, when I didn't even know who Rhead was.

Hey Bluereader-

The Dover book does include Rhead and Wyeth. The Rhead work is some of his best. I was going to refer you to the TOC at Dover's site, but I see they have made a real error there.... I'll report that and get it fixed ASAP-so for you- the list is as follows-

Aubrey Beardsley, William Ernest Chapman, Walter Crane, W. R. Flint, H. J. Ford, Thomas Mackenzie, Willy Pogány, Howard Pyle, Arthur Rackham, Louis Rhead, and Wyeth-The Frank Schoonover frontis from the Rhead edition works as a frontis here, as well.

Happy to find folks with similar vision. I'm sure there will be some interesting discussion.

BTW, I started a related blog a few weeks ago-
http://withaviewto.blogspot.com/

Be in touch—

Jeff A. Menges

Mr. Menges, I'm glad for the chance to thank you (and Dover) for the pleasure the collections you've edited have given me, enabling me to enjoy fabulous illustrations without having to empty my not-fat bank account. I've preordered the Willy Pogany book, and I look forward to more collections from you and Dover.

I'll be visiting your blog often.

Jeff, we all owe you a debt of gratitude for the wonderful books you have produced for Dover.

Hey-

Just keep buying the books, so we can keep making them. That'll be thanks enough. It took a long time to convince Dover that there was a market for illustration as art...

The strong success of some of my early projects has lead to Dover's continued interest in the material, and it has been my pleasure to unearth some of the imagery that folks here know and love, and help it become available to a wider public at a reasonable price.

As an undergraduate illustration student in the 80's I was pointed to Henry Pitz's book on Howard Pyle. When I found it, and the world of Brandywine art that I had previously been unaware of, I couldn't believe that so much great imagery was being ignored or forgotten by most people, even within the illustration community. It's been great to get some of this material back out there (though nowadays there are a bunch of internet sites helping that cause along also) and Dover is a great partner for doing this. While I have received comments that the quality of these books might not be the hard-bound coffee-table editions we might like, it is foreseeable that there may never be sufficient interest to render that kind of production financially possible. The small print runs that Dover does allow them to explore markets and subjects that other publishers could not work with.

I'm fortunate to be with them at a time that we can all benefit from these books on Golden Age Illustration, and I'm glad to be getting names out there again, like Warwick Goble, and Willy Pogány.

Thanks for your kind words. I'll keep trying to get better material, and keep pushing for better production levels. Don't be strangers.

Jeff A. Menges

Jeff,
Looking again at your Warwick Goble and 'Arabian Nights' volumes, I have been impressed by the immaculate reproduction of the colour plates. Such quality reassures me that we can expect some wonderful issues from Dover. I suppose this publishing company had to be the natural home for this kind of project even if it required your advocacy to make them see this. I expect great things from the King Arthur volume which has been delayed here and I can't wait to see the Pogany volume.
When so many books are being digitised (with varying degrees of success by Google etc) surely it is appropriate that libraries with great collections of illustrated books invite individuals like yourself and publishers like Dover to scan their treasures so that the work of these artists are made available to a wider public.
Great as it is to see these illustrations it is even better to see them in the context of the books for which they were created. I see that the Calla series of books is being distributed by Dover. I hope we will see a lot more of these. Their reasonable price makes them an attractive purchase.

Jeff,
Looking again at your Warwick Goble and 'Arabian Nights' volumes, I have been impressed by the immaculate reproduction of the colour plates. Such quality reassures me that we can expect some wonderful issues from Dover. I suppose this publishing company had to be the natural home for this kind of project even if it required your advocacy to make them see this. I expect great things from the King Arthur volume which has been delayed here and I can't wait to see the Pogany volume.
When so many books are being digitised (with varying degrees of success by Google etc) surely it is appropriate that libraries with great collections of illustrated books invite individuals like yourself and publishers like Dover to scan their treasures so that the work of these artists is made available to a wider public.
Great as it is to see these illustrations it is even better to see them in the context of the books for which they were created. I see that the Calla series of books is being distributed by Dover. I hope we will see a lot more of these. Their reasonable price makes them an attractive purchase.

Still no sign of the new Dover book 'Visions of Camelot'. Another message from Amazon putting back the delivery date till the ed of May. I might have to order a copy direct from the US.