Purpose of this Blog...

You may have noticed that not all books are equal in capturing children's imaginations and in cultivating those innocent, tender souls. My goal is to help you find the ones that do!
(Painting by Mary Cassatt: "Mrs Cassatt Reading to her Grandchildren" -1888)




Friday, June 13, 2014

Vintage Collectible Art in Books - Part 2

Are you ready for Richard Scarry's drawings of OZ, and some wonderfully whimsical art from Maurice Sendak?  Both of these illustrators shared June birthdays (Scarry's was on the 5th, and Maurice Sendak's was the 6th), and I just had to share a few more lovely illustrations (mentioned here in my past post) from The Best In Children's Books - a vintage 42-volume set published between 1957 and 1961.
Richard Scarry's cover illustration of Baum's With Dorothy in Oz (Volume 40) brought memories of childhood read aloud time with my mom flooding back!

The pages of these treasured volumes hold wonderful story collections and original artwork that (in some cases) can only be found between the covers of these books!

Such is the case for the amazing original illustrations I've posted today, starting with Richard Scarry's vision of OZ...





From Maurice Sendak, I'd like to share these gems found in Volume 31. Sendak's illustrations accompanied "Windy Wash Day and Other Poems" by Dorothy Aldis...





"...perhaps the most intriguing part of the series is the illustrators. Their names are not given on the table of contents page, but are found only on the title page of the individual story. Because of this lack of credit, most of the illustrations done in this series are not mentioned in bibliographies of the artists' work. Thanks to the efforts of art director Diana Klemin, many now-famous illustrators did some of their earliest work in this series, including Maurice Sendak, Ezra Jack Keats, Peter Spier, Barbara Cooney, Feodor Rojankovsky, Richard Scarry, and even Andy Warhol...." [source: de Grummond Children's Literature Collection - read more here]

2 comments:

  1. Eek! I know you're shocked (not), but I adore these Oz illustrations! I had never seen them. Thank you!!!

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  2. Haha, Danzel - I can imagine you're quite ecstatic! ;) You'll have to hunt down this volume - check on ebay!

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