the illustrators of The Wind in the Willows - part 2

Okay, the original thread was getting too large to load.

Just as a morning treat, here is a photo of a water vole

double post?

love the picture, as did my 8 yo great niece. Nice way to start the day. I hope to encourage her to read The Wind in the Willows soon.

Aha! Found it.

As a special treat to myself, I researched the web for the non-exclusive printing of the Folio Society Charles Van Sandwyk Wind in the Willows. I found a reasonably priced copy in near-fine condition on AbeBooks and it arrived yesterday from a shop in Hay-on-Wye, England.

It is a beautiful book. Mixed feelings about the art work, during just a brief scan-through.

Very glad to know about this bookstore (Rose's Books - Collectible Children's Books) and will enquire about other books I lust after.

>5 2wonderY: bookstore bullet...

They also have a Maggie Downer copy and a Stella Maidment I've got my eye on.

I find I do like Van Sandwyk's characterizations. They are not so different than other of the great illustrators. But he seems to lose steam from one end of the book to the other. He misses attempting some of the most exciting scenes. The great battle for Toad Hall, and even the preparations for it, are completely absent. All we get is a line drawing of several weasels or stoats slinking away. No, not even slinking, just leaving with backward glances.

I understand that the exclusive Folio Society edition has a different list of illustrations. I might wander over to that group and ask about the differences.

It's a beautifully bound book, but somewhat disappointing.

>8 2wonderY: sorry it was disappointing for you.

It's not The Wind in the Willows, but my latest read, Seabiscuit vs War Admiral, had some really interesting illustrations. The artist used both primitive/abstract and realistic styles within the pages. The little bit of artiste in me liked them, a lot.

I haven't had time to look at a whole handful of WITW books I ordered and received. I found another British seller who had several of Maggie Downer's books and a Val Biro.

I'm offering a Maggie Downer duplicate of chapter 3 The Wild Wood. It is almost a miniature, being no more than 3-1/2" square. And it's re-written by Stephanie Laslett. Lots of pictures though.

>10 2wonderY: I'm interested. :)

Do you have a picture?

Can't find one online, I'll scan it next week.

Nudge the pile of illustrators now and again and one will fall clear of the others for a closer look-see.
Somehow, Victoria Assanelli came to my attention. This is a Parragon publication from 2014; a dumbed down short story retold by Catherine Allison. It’s a nice sized picture book with a soft and sleek padded cover. The blurred willow branches beckon and the shiny red title winks at you. But the story is run through in just twelve pages. Yes, the caravan trip begins and ends on page three. There is no time for dabbling with the ducks or caroling with the mice or even enjoying a picnic spread. The featured players remain characterless expressionless basic shapes. Ratty is a midget compared to Mole. I keep paging back and forth looking for something pleasing…okay, Badger’s china is pretty.

http://kidpix.livejournal.com/76603.html?thread=545083

http://polny-shkaf.livejournal.com/93071.html

This is a Russian version of Wind in the willows

>13 Cathy.Wang: Thank you for contributing some images from another part of the world. I do enjoy seeing all the different interpretations.

Trying to translate the tags, I think the illustrator (or perhaps the translator) is Tokmakova I. Denisov. Google search doesn't help beyond that.

ah!

Graham, Kenneth. Wind in the Willows. Translation from English Irina Tokmakova. Artist Sergey Denisov. Series: Children bestseller.M .: Eurasian region. 1993 .. Cover: laminated solid .; 224 pages; Format: Pts. big

>13 Cathy.Wang: oh, I really like those illustrations, they made me grin. I especially loved the smiling stars, happy snowflakes, and all the "eyes" in the scary woods scene.

(notes thus far on Maggie Downer)

Courtesy of the internet, I discovered the English illustrator Maggie Downer, while exploring The Wind in the Willows. Her drawings for that book are particularly charming to my eye. I was finally able to acquire several by ordering them from England. They proved completely satisfactory, and I was able to enjoy five chapters of her pictures.

So, of course, I was curious about her other work. My library system has only a few books with her name attached, but I ordered a few.
Nothing else I’ve seen by her is nearly as good though. I have to conclude that Graham’s work was particularly inspirational for her. These other books seem only workmanlike, lacking the exceptional charm of Willow.

The Little Fir Tree story is peopled with a bear family. The first page seems to promise goodies. It’s a woodland scene in a decorative botanic frame, and two bluebirds hover over the picture, interrupting the frame. It’s a striking technique. But the rest of the pages and characters are extremely ho-hum.

The First Christmas, a nativity storybook, is better. Her frames are nice, Mary and Joseph and some shepherds occasionally have nicely animated features, and the wise men are richly drawn, reminding me of the Petersham’s work. Gabriel’s two appearances are finely drawn and have character. The best feature is the barnyard animals - chickens, oxen and especially the donkey, who gazes out at the reader with curiosity. But I’m not motivated to own it, and it’s a subject I deliberately collect.

As to her WITW; if I put Downer’s work next to Michael Hague (which is similar), I’d have to favor Hague. But on its own, Downer’s renditions are very pleasing, verging on delightful. She seems not to have illustrated the entire book, and the collections I’ve acquired seem to be the entirety of what she produced.

The Nursery Classics volume appears to contain most of her work on the subject. The text redactor is Stephanie Laslett, who does a creditable job, retaining a lot of the best material. We’ve got The River Bank, The Wild Wood, and Return to Toad Hall (which condenses the last two chapters of the original.)

The Children’s Storytime Classics is a simplification of the Nursery Classics, with much less text and fewer pictures. This volume also contains The Adventures of Toad, being chapters 8 and 10 from the original. It is a larger format volume than the very compact Nursery Classics.

Downer sadly appears not to have done On the Road and Dulce Domum, my next favorite chapters after chapter 1. She frames her pages with objects taken from the storyline. So, The Wild Wood chapter, for instance, is festooned with items from Badger’s generous larder stores.

(to be continued)

Thanks for all your work on this thread 2WonderY!

There's a lovely new version of WITW just out, for those who might be interested. The illustrations are by David Petersen (best known for his work on the Mouseguard graphic novels) - I've attached the cover below, and if you go to the book on amazon you can use the 'look inside' feature to see more illustrations.

Oooh! Mouse guard is one graphic novel series I admire. Seems no illustrator can resist this material.

>17 skullduggery: Oh my, thanks for the tip. Looks great! Adding it to the WL.

I see this thread is up and running again, good!

Hi-Ho!

I'm ebullient this morning. I finally located an affordable copy of The Illustrators of The Wind in the Willows, 1908-2008, ordered it, had second thoughts and cancelled the order. Lucky for me, the Goodwill Store from who knows where ignored my cancellation and sent it to me. It came last night and it had some wonderful surprises. (note to self: check with half.com that the payment goes through) It was a pristine copy, not just good condition. It had many more illustrations than the Amazon descriptor implies. Though most are black & white, there is a short section of glossy color prints. Hares-Stryker organizes her chapters by decades, and her coverage of the artists is both factual and anecdotal. Though she minimizes her own opinions, they are there and welcome.

And beyond that, I find she is local to me. She teaches at a college just across the river from me. I dashed off an email to her and hope to hear back.

She mentions the librarian at the college library in her acknowledgements. I'm guessing there might be a pretty good collection of illustrated versions there. Planning a trip soon!

>21 2wonderY: Maybe the book knew it belonged with you. :-)

That is a nice coincidence

I'm thinking she may have retired in the last year or so. Her faculty page is not so current, and no response yet to my email. I'm going to try to reach her next through the college librarian. (Which doesn't have much of a collection of WITW after all, searching their online catalog.)

Maybe she took them all home.

Yes! I can hope that she is still local. I just sent an inquiry to the Dean of the English Department.

>21 2wonderY: wonderful find! I am happy it found its way to your mailbox. :)

Chris Dunn, like his illustrations but can't find the book.
http://www.chris-dunn.co.uk/the-wind-in-the-willows

Philip Mendoza （1898-1973）
http://www.allposters.com/-st/Philip-Mendoza-Posters_c113778_.htm

Spanish illustrator Angel Domingue, limited edition £150

http://www.booksillustrated.com/gallery.php?theme#36

German illustrator, picture book,40pages

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wind-den-Weiden-Bilderbuch-Klassiker/dp/340109274X/ref=...

Playhour comic

http://www.sulisfineart.com/peter-woolcock-1985-gouache-wind-in-the-willows-from...

http://www.sulisfineart.com/peter-woolcock-1978-gouache-wind-in-the-willows-from...

No word from Hares-Stryker. I feel as if I missed her by just this tiny bit. Oh, well.

I did manage to find a very cheap copy of Beyond the Wild Wood while I was playing on half.com. $1.12 plus shipping, and it's an ex-library book. But except for the inconspicuous label on the spine and a stamp or two inside, the book is in perfect condition. It'll be a serious pleasure to read it.

>30 2wonderY: let us know when you do read it.

I just found an unusual sort-of illustrated version of The Wind in the Willows, available from Spineless Classics online:

https://www.spinelessclassics.com/the-wind-in-the-willows-one-page-book-35.htm

The company's gimmick is printing the whole text of a book on a poster, with a design that is appropriate to the book:

>32 harrygbutler: I'd never be able to read that fine print!

>33 fuzzi: I think I'd want to hang a magnifying glass next to the poster.

>34 harrygbutler: a very strong magnifying glass would be necessary!

This is the magnifying glass I remember:

I continue to enjoy this pursuit.

As skullduggery says above, David Petersen is well known for his Mouse Guard series, which I've enjoyed. Someone convinced him to illustrate the entire WITW.
It was published last year.



I didn't check, but it appears to be the entire text of the original.

Petersen seems to have borrowed heavily from other prior illustrators, and he says as much in his dedication: "to the illustrators of Grahame's tale who came before and forged a visual path for me to wander."

I'd say most like Eric Kincaid and Ernest Shepard, with a touch of Michael Hague and Don Daily.

It is lush and visually satisfying. Though it doesn't describe the art technique, Petersen's short bio mentions that his BFA is in Printmaking. Ah! Thus the heavy black lines throughout the prints.

Two negatives

Too many black & white illustrations. Petersen's work is meant to have color!
Ratty seems too solemn and formal. Always in a coat, and never smiling.

But all 'round a good solid collection.

DK (Dorling Kindersley) has a Young Classics series.

Sally Grindley adapted the text, producing 6 chapters and Eric Copeland illustrated the book.



Copeland’s watercolors do not stint on color, detail and action. It is a good piece of work. The first chapter especially meets the Riverbank and does it justice. The ebullience of spring can almost be smelled. Characters are what you’d expect, without any oddities or outstanding notes. Casual dress is allowed.

Many pages contain a box with a photo or illustration from Edwardian times that helps to contextualize parts of the story that might seem odd to young readers. For instance, there is a note about badgers and their seasonal habits.

My favorite illustration is Rat pulling Mole from his dip in the river.

(It's possible I've noted this edition before. I see I added it in 2014.)

>38 2wonderY: care to scan some pictures?

>37 2wonderY: I do like the black outlines, almost like stained glass.

Brenda Apsley manages a vanilla adaptation to several chapters. I have on hand Home Sweet Home.



Eileen Fitzpatrick Berry is the illustrator. Not quite boring, but nothing to make it stand out. At least Ratty and Mole are appealingly depicted. If I'm recalling correctly, it most resembles Cliff Wright's work, but without the magic and charm.

Oksana Bulkevych

https://www.behance.net/gallery/54900077/The-Wind-in-the-Willows-illustration-pr...

>41 romanbulk: That’s a different take on Toad, for sure. I like the textures and Badger’s home in particular. Very nice Badger and Mole as well. Is this for publication or another type of project?

That's a student's project. Too few for publication, I guess.)

I made a passing reference to Mary Jane Begin's work a while ago. I came upon her Willow Buds set. Ew!

She imagines our friends as tykes, with a whole set of childhood escapades. I've got When Toady Met Ratty in hand. The treacle just oozes from it. And Badger in schoolboy outfit is degrading.

I don't like it at all.

Just to have a complete record, I brought home a 1984 vhs tape by Martin Gates. Mole’s Christmas is the title. Based on the cover art work, I almost returned it without viewing. But i’ve found hidden treasures before. This isn’t one of those times. The story is padded out with a human sub-story and trouble-making weasels. Ratty looks like a prosperous burgher with a bobcat’s head. The most appealing moment is the carol by the mice children. Their voices are amatuer with hints of off-key. Ratty also finds a dusty bottle of black currant cordial.



They’d have been much better served by an animator in the mold of Beverley Gooding.

Forgetting I had looked at it last year, I ordered the David Petersen book again, and glad I did. More time this season to take long looks at the illustrations. See >37 2wonderY:.

I have to correct, that his sketches are not B&W, but brown. Don't know if that reflects the original art work or is a choice of the printer. And I have to say that his favorite color is brown. That's not a negative. He uses multiple shades and hues to great advantage. His use of other colors is muted but effective.
He also prefers enclosed spaces. Mole and Ratty lost in the Wild Wood, sheltering in a tree hollow is a perfect example of both these features. The fallen leaves and burrs that surround them, even the ivy climbing the tree has only a slight blush of green under the winter brown. Ratty is entirely brown. Mole is grey/black and his scarf is browner than brick red. The lightest points on the page are their muzzles. Very nice.



The iconic pose of picnic basket being loaded into the boat manages with these same muted tones. The cattail leaves and trailing materials along Ratty's roofline are green, but not very green. The boat along the bottom of the page is ship gray. The lightest spots are a cloudy daylight reflecting from a window, a lamp and Ratty's spring jacket.



I have to say, my printing is darker, moodier than this image.

Petersen also uses an omniscient viewpoint to good effect, sometimes angling his pictures from above. This is reflected in my favorite of his illustrations, but one I can't find online. It is Badger's fireside, again in all browns except for the yellow of the fire that haloes Badger.

You can take a glimpse inside yourself here.

Oh, and btw, Peterson has sketched some of The Guardians of the Galaxy

Found a new publication to look for or order.

My Dearest Mouse. The actor and playwright, David Gooderson wrote the introduction. He seems to be a lifetime fan, having written and produced multiple stage presentations of TWITW.

Do you remember the cover that was embroidered? Appears Penguin Books loves to ask designers, especially students of the graphic arts, to participate in yearly design competitions, using iconic classics.

From what I can tell, the children's book for 2013 was The Wind in the Willows, and I'm seeing some really cool stuff on Pinterest and Behance. I'm not sure why I can't find them all together on one page, but I googled 'penguin design awards wind in the willows' and got a pretty good collection. I might try bringing some of the images here, along with the artist names, if I find the energy.

Like this one by Camilla Bell

Nabaa Baqir

Vicky Mills

Chantelle Barnard-Rance

I don't find the cover itself, but this is the raw image by Thomas Wightman, and perhaps my favorite.



And look at the cool stuff he's done since:
http://thomaswightman.co.uk/projects

Just one more by Mia Tivey

David Peterson’s must be in my top 3 now, lovely!

>55 JerryMmm: If you look for him to purchase, be sure to spell the author name with an '-en', not '-on'

Great illustrations from David Petersen. I remember him from Mouse Guard.

Martin Gates created a full set of animated stories through BMG Entertainment (see >45 2wonderY:) But they don't seem to be fully coordinated.

I tried to watch The Adventures of Mole last evening, but it made me ill. Besides the fact that the tape was in poor repair, and the color was gone, the depiction of Mole was just so vapid. This set is best left to the dustbin.

Stumbled upon another author who has used TWITW to tell a new story, in two volumes - The Wind in the Pylons takes Mole through a time-twist.

I'll quote from a review:

The much-loved Mole finds a tunnel in his burrow while spring cleaning one day. Itching for a new adventure, Mole follows the mysterious tunnel and finds himself in an unfamiliar and unpleasant new age of industry, technology and capitalist enterprise.

The tunnel has penetrated time as well as space, and Mole has been carried forward eighty years into a 1990s where the weasels have taken over altogether. Nature itself is under attack from every quarter and Pan, the god of the natural world, has been driven into hiding.
...
Weaselworld is an apocalyptic place, totally unsuited to a sensitive creature such as the Mole, were it not for one strange fact: in this world of the future, no one who comes into the Mole’s company can do anything but speak the truth to him. And in a society where the lie is a standard tool of the professions and can be exposed to the advantage of those in the know, the Mole rapidly finds himself a rising star in the eyes of one of its wiliest arch-manipulators, the Chief Executive Animal of petro-chemicals giant Toad Transoceanic, Mr. Humfrey Wyvern-Toad.

Here's another review.

I've wishlisted them, and also two other photographic works by the author, The Wildwood and English Country Lanes. They are sparse copies on LT, so probably not easily acquired.

I went a little bit wild on a buying spree. I'll be getting multiple packages in the mailbox for the next week or so.

I went through the first thread and found Krista Brennan again. She has a lovely watercolour on her homepage:


Can you spot the different doctors?

Richard Johnson has illustrated several classics. In 2014, Usborne published his version - The Wind in the Willows (Usborne Illustrated Originals).

Googling pulls up many of his illustrations and he's got a page on his own website devoted to them - HERE.

I think they are mostly too cartoony and slick. The only one that impresses me greatly is the one that is unlike any of the others:

>62 2wonderY: I love that one. I do not like his Toad at all, the rest of the animals are alright but not great, but I am very fond of all his outdoor scenes.

Yeah, his Toad looks a lot like a generic Kermit the Frog.

Hah, now that you mention it, he does resemble the Muppet Babies Kermit... XD

Looking for additional illustrators, I borrowed a Penguin edition, with illustrations by Robin Lawrie. Though I see he does a lot of creditable artwork for other classics and picturebooks, the effort is wasted here. He was limited to 12 chapter heading sketches in black & white. And since the book size is compact, the pictures are too small to discern much.

I found three of them on his website.
Here's one:



Even if they were larger, I would be critical of his vanilla characterizations and animal heads on human proportioned bodies. Note - Ratty doesn't even rate a tail.

Penguin does offer a few bonus features - general reference notes, a page each of discussion questions and activities, a verbal tour of the River Thames, and an introduction by Brian Jacques.

I think I've ordered all of whatever is left from my library system, so stay tuned.

I stumbled across Sankha Banerjee, who is making cartoon versions of the classics for Campfire Graphics. After Googling for images, I'm not at all interested in pursuing his work. I hate to give him space here, but I will to prove my dislike.

There are two covers that I've found. Compare the characters:





And then I think this is an inside view:



For me, there is nothing admirable here. Nothing.

I can't track the provenance of this, but it is of a similar kind

>67 2wonderY: But I this page by Banerjee has some appeal:



I like the concept and the layout, though Mole is ... awful.

Collins Classics issued the book with this cover in the last couple of years:



Now that's nice! Can I discover the artist? No.

And here's an uncredited cover for the audio book by Arcadia



It reminds me of Maggie Downer's work, or Cliff Wright, but it's neither.

Calico Illustrated Classics has 16 chapters, leaving nothing of the story out except for the charm. Lisa Mullarkey did the adaptation, and Shawna J. C. Tenney did the illustrations.

Wind in the Willows (Calico Illustrated Classics)



I count 13 pictures in 112 pages, and only 5 of them are full page sized in a small format book. The cover illustration promises, but the interior fails to deliver. All are black and white and lack any particular charm.



And actually, those found online at least have a crispness that the book lacks, possibly because of cheap reproduction.

I see that this has been erroneously folded into the original work, unlike most of the others of this publisher series.

Gareth Stevens Publishing has a series called Silly Stories.

They appear to use classic stories as a vehicle to sell a padded version, throwing in odd tales from who knows where.



It's a corporate nightmare list a half a page long. There are 5 named artists, and "other artwork from the Miles Kelly Artwork Bank" which is why, I guess, the series books are listed here with authors such as Miles Kelly and Kelly Miles. Except for a couple of detail insets, what you get is on the cover. It had some potential, but went nowhere.

Of course the chapter is heavily adapted, though nowhere does it admit the fact.

The other three stories inside are The Inchcape Rock by James Baldwin, The Cat and the Mouse by Joseph Jacobs, and Why the Bear is Stumpy-Tailed by Sir George Webbe Dascent. Extremely random choices.

Kij Johnson wrote a sequel titled The River Bank. Kathleen Jennings' illustrations are muted and dreamy.



The endpapers repeat the cover image but all in green. The inside illustrations are all in greys, sketches rather than drawings. They seem mostly an afterthought. There are two new main characters, 'the Rabbit' and Beryl. Beryl is a female mole, and in the first chapter, Mole is upset that these two have moved into the neighborhood. My curiosity as to why is almost non-existent. I'm sure it resolves by the end of the book, but I don't care. Johnson has changed the cadences of the story with a truly irritating edit. Instead of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad, they are always referred to as the Water Rat, the Mole, the Badger and the Toad. Beryl seems to have a personal name only because you can't have two 'the Mole' characters. Beryl looks exactly like Mole, except dressed in a frumpy old lady style. The Rabbit is her female friend, but she gets to wear youthful springtime dresses.

Toad's (oh, sorry, the Toad's) aunt is mentioned and is allowed a thumbnail sketch. The Water Rat says, "Toad has an aunt, a formidable battle-axe, to leave the bark on the word. Sophronia is quite aged but tough as oak and hard as granite, and she lives entirely removed from the world, in a castle somewhere in Scotland." I guess they are trying to separate Toad and Lottie (it seems the Rabbit has a name as well) because they are romantically attracted. I think I'd like Sophronia.

(It does seem that the Water Rat is sometimes allowed to name his friends directly. But it also lacks consistency.)

So the story itself offends the spirit of Grahame's tale. Others have done story sequels with much more success. Jennings is alright. Her cover is especially apt and sweet. Oh, and her other book cover work is pretty nice too.

Stephanie Peters manages the re-telling of the story as a compact graphic novel. And Fernando Cano does the art work.



Dulce Domum, picnics, Pan and other assorted favorite points are eliminated. Toad's story is the main focus. The intended audience is the younger reader crowd.

So, as cartoony as >67 2wonderY:. but less offensive. Everyone except Badger has googly eyes, Ratty is built like a potato on toothpick legs, Mole is a grey blob. Badger is just right; exuding calm patience and wisdom. Otter and son are lovingly depicted.

Cano varies the viewpoint and colors and has a few amusing bits here and there. Not a bad effort as an introduction to the Willows world; just not to my taste.

I did a quick review of Tim Davis' efforts back in 2014: https://www.librarything.com/topic/159157#4575513

Well, I've got hold of the book again. His illustrations struck me as most like coloring book pages. And looking him up, I see why. He has done over 500 Hidden Picture illustrations for Highlights Magazine.

Most are pleasant, and make me want to pull out my crayons.

But his Pan is very odd:

Hah, that is odd, and utterly non-fitting, but as a drawing in & of itself I quite like it, hahaha.

Wow, ratty and mole meet the Gruffalo..

Scholastic Junior Classics has a version that I reviewed in 2014, but not in the thread, it seems.

I've got it here in front of me now. The cover itself is very similar to the one by Treasury of Illustrated Classics. (see link in >76 2wonderY:.



It's a very pleasant cover, art by Steven Smallman. However, the interior illustrations are no more than dark ink sketches that don't give a fair shake to his work. Otter is particularly appealing in his one appearance; and the battle inside Toad Hall is done well.

Ellen Miles does a creditable job of adaptation, There are 11 chapters; missing is The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

It's too bad Scholastic spent so little on production qualities.

Ah! Different cover last time: https://www.librarything.com/topic/159157#4582146

And it must be this cover here that puts me in better humor towards the book today. Ratty is perfect, eh?
Smallman's other art is prolific, if repetitive. The only item I really am attracted to is this obscure title:



I wonder why.

Here's one I'll probably never see in person, but it's very nice. Artist not listed on the cover though. I think Elke Leger is the translator.
Karl Menrad is the narrator, if I understand properly.

Back up in >12 2wonderY: I mention a pretty book by Parragon. Well, here it is:



This is a better size than I remember it being, but the story is almost as abrupt as I recall, but a bit more generous in the picture department. Here there are two pictures for The Open Road.

Still the same take on the characters. Something else I noticed, Badger just happens to have extra robes of the exactly correct size for his guests. Now, that might be possible, but at least one more clever artist rigged Rat and Mole out in Badger-sized wrappings, adding a nice sub-text which is lacking here.

When I search by the isbn on my copy, I get taken to the main work. I've searched, but I can't see why. Finding it here successfully, the entire title is necessary.

The Wind in the Willows (Illustrated Classic Storybook)

Obscure craftsperson, Di Campbell, created a charming book full of fabric and paper crafts depicting our favorite river denizens.

The Wind in the Willows Craft Book



There are watercolour depictions throughout that are charming. Ratty juggles pinecones; Badger attempts repairs to a pair of trousers. My favorite is a detail of the two hedgehogs. But I scanned another to share:



Examining the book thoroughly, there is no separate credit given for these, so I have to conclude that Campbell did these as well. Nice job!

Isnb 1561384550 is a complete and unabridged text. Sadly, Running Press published it with no illustrations. That’s right – None! The cover art is by Don Daily. There is a short essay by A. A. Milne.

Happy Easter!

Hello, I'm back!

I've been holding onto two Michael Hague works for a while. I've got his original 1980 full version, which I love, and his 2000 re-visit of Chapter 5, Dulce Domum. The 2000 book is titled A Wind in the Willows Christmas. I'll do a bit of comparison.

I like that Hague comes back to this story, and each time recouches it. (You'll remember he's also done a simplified chapter 1 with Susan Hill, and possibly others I've forgotten as well.)

So here's the cover



The 1980 chapter has a total of 5 illustrations. Hague has space here for more pictures - yay! There are eight pictures (plus the endpapers) of Mole and Rat travelling through the snowy night. They are not quite as engaging as our favorites by Beverley Gooding, but still very nice. Mole ecstatically finding his entrance hole and diving into it is pretty dang awesome.

Mole End is much different here versus the 1980 version. There, it's an overstuffed Victorian parlour, merry, but busy. This one has the feel of a 30's bungalow, with straight simple lines and furniture. Did I see an inglenook? Yes! where the mice and Mole catch up with all the local news.

Our two main fellows are more compact here; more cuddly themselves than earlier. In 1980, Rat looks like a prosperous burgher and Mole wears a long duster jacket. Here, Rat wears a cheerful red turtleneck and Mole sports a green vest.

The mice are an adorable collection of sweetness both times. They spill, they giggle, they are shy and bold, helpful, clumsy and sleepy.

Rat and Mole's other minor activities are charming. Mole reclines with a feather duster over his face, in despair about the condition he's left his home. Rat emerges from the cellar triumphantly with beer bottles clutched in paws and armpits. Reminiscent of Graham Philpot's cozy pictures.

Just for reference sake, there is a picture of the forecourt, but it's been done better elsewhere.

An entry on Pinterest alerted me to Angel Dominguez and I ordered what I could from the library.

Diary of a Victorian Mouse purports to be a photo journal recording scenes from a variety of locations in Victorian England. It does so almost nauseatingly thoroughly, as even the publishers are named as mice.

The illustrations are over-done. The characters are over-dressed and all have huge bellies and fatuous expressions. The first few "photos" are exclusively of mice, but then all of a sudden, the world is populated with many other species as well. Here's an example of how he mixes the species elsewhere:



The text is poorly done poems, and the author isn't even given cover credit. Dominguez is a Spanish artist and he has a fascination with English literature, he says in interviews.



So why am I mentioning him here?

There are several pages that are given over to our four friends! The first time you see them the three smaller characters are performing a Scottish dance in full costume at a festival, with Badger looking on. Geez! Incongruous.

The next couple of pages allows them back to a more congenial place, sitting in boats, but launching from a city pier, not the countryside. Again odd. And the text identifies them by name and has Mole complaining about Toad not doing any work. Further on, one last page has them rushing along the sidewalk in front of Christie's auction carrying treasures they've bought. Again not particularly in character.

Besides the contextual issues, I'm not a fan of the art here. Though they are color, they're overset with that strong sepia of aged photos.

However, Dominguez has indeed done a full rendition of our beloved story. You can look at a few of the illustrations there.

Here is the cover of the regular edition:

Now that looks more like it! I might pursue it at some point.
Here's a lovely rendition of Mole:

I may have stumbled upon this illustration on Pinterest. I've got a very cute book in front of me illustrated by Mae Besom, and I always try to research and enhance author pages. So I found her blog and just this one WITW picture:



(I'm making the image big enough so you can appreciate the textures and the subtle shadings of the background.

Very nice

John Patience, of Fern Hollow fame, has also illustrated very simple versions of several chapters. Somewhere in here, I reviewed the board book, The River Bank. Today, I acquired The Open Road. But this version is a much larger version, and instead of board book, it is a pop-up. I like it!

Images of his covers are really hard to find, so I'm using the board book version. It's identical in all other respects.

Wind in the Willows: The Open Road (pop-up book)

I was at a Half Price bookstore recently and saw a stack of expensively bound new hardbacks, nicely housed in their own box sleeves.



Tiziana Longo is a Sicilian illustrator. She doesn't yet have a page on LT, so I linked to her agent's page.

HERE is a selection of her work for this book.

I don't particularly like the cartoonish versions of the story, and her characters are annoyingly too human and vanilla. But her settings are nice.

>85 2wonderY: Pshaw! Only 200 copies of Angel Dominguez efforts. Selling online for 150 GBP. Not well marketed, I'd say. A wider audience would enhance his returns.

My routine at bookstores now is to at least breeze by the children's section to see any versions of WITW are on the shelf. This weekend saw two slim paperback Wordworth publications. One had black & white plates of Arthur Rackham's illustrations, but an awful cover.



The other lacked those plates, used Rackham's chapter heading sketches, but had a more pleasing cover.



Neither is worth the money in my opinion, when there are so many other delightful choices.

Lured by the nice cover illustration on the Children’s Treasury edition, I ordered a copy to inspect Lindsay Duff’s work. I am frankly disappointed.

(fuzzy cover is the only one I can find.)


The first two (of ten total) are nice. They are the cover illustration and Rat pulling Mole out of the water. They both echo what other artists have done, but satisfy on their own merits. I’m reminded of Cliff Wright.



But the rest lack a reason for being, and otherwise do nothing to enhance the narrative. Several are of Toad, but lack much in the way of scene and story detail. They are just boring.

Badger is correctly colored in one, but not in the other two where he appears, causing momentary confusion. Also, she has Mole and Badger sitting in the Toad Hall library still conversing while the house is filling with invading, and presumably raucous, weasels stoats and ferrets. Those animals are not sneaking, but storming. Context, Lindsay!

While looking for the above cover, another caught my eye; and I went researching.

Coming out this fall, Templar Publishing commissioned Grahame Baker-Smith to illustrate our beloved classic.

Here's a description page and an illustration.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/templar-launches-classic-list-sumptuous-wind-...

I'm lusting after the cover.



Checking out this hitherto unknown artist till then.

And the cover of the Kindle edition:

Recruiting Ratty, Toad, Mole and Badger in the service of The Wildlife Trusts!!!

Film at 8:



See the trailer on this page:

Walking on the wild side with the Wind in the Willows team

>93 2wonderY: So excited after seeing some of the illustrations that I found a site taking pre-orders with a $2 discount and free shipping from the UK.

https://wordery.com/the-wind-in-the-willows-grahame-baker-smith-9781783708505

>94 2wonderY: Wish it was a real film.

What a joy of a thread! Loved looking through both the original as well as this one; never realized what a wealth of illustrations TWITW had inspired!

Though probably unrealistic, a little part of me hopes Inga Moore might yet contribute some more illustrations, since a Guardian piece some time back (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/06/inga-moore-illustration-wind-willows) mentioned she kept thinking back to Mole and Ratty, and was working on a sequel. I often find myself looking at her illustrations while reading another copy for the unabridged text! I would love to see her interpretation of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and Wayfarers All - none of the other work I've come across quite does those beautiful chapters justice.

I rather disagree with how modern abridged editions tend to leave those chapters out. I didn't understand them as a young child, but they still evoked my sense of awe, mystery, and wanderlust, and the story was far richer for it.

>97 Anonymous_: Hey - welcome to LibraryThing and our little corner.

My new edition, illustrated by Grahame Baker-Smith, has arrived!

There are 14 full page color illustrations and many other one color sketches varying in sizes from full page to chapter ending flourish.

The sketches are either pencil or charcoal and then washed with tones of one color watercolor. So, winter scenes are in blues, Toad is in greens, Otter is in browns, etc.

It's the full page illustrations that are sometimes wonderful. His use of light and reflection and focus (think camera lens focus) are remarkable.

His Toad has the biggest, googliest eyes. Mole is an indistinct lump with a twist-up nose; Ratty has kind eyes, but a very blunt snout. His Badger can be set among the best of the other illustrators:



He misses many chances to portray iconic scenes. There's no riverside picnic, no Badger's fireside. Sigh. But the recapture of Toad Hall is a portrait of our boys in action.

The endpapers are a subtle willow branch green against blue-grey water. Very rich in tone.

See the cover above in >93 2wonderY:

Adding to the comments about David Petersen's illustrations for Wind in the Willows, here's a link to a model David Petersen created of Badger's cupboard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-2rMZmGlBQ

>102 rhinemaiden:. That’s very nice; thanks for sharing it. And welcome to LT and this group.

Thanks for the welcome. I don't know where Library Thing has been all my life, but as an avid reader since my "See Spot run" days, I feel I've found a new home. I read every post in the Wind in the Willows thread, discovered illustrators new to me, and ordered six of the Wind in the Willows editions mentioned here for my personal library.

I lost track of this thread, but have thoroughly enjoyed catching up!

>101 2wonderY: ::drool::

Stumbled upon this discussion of a new printing by Hand & Eye bookbinders in the Fine Press Forum:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/330344#

Is it with Rackham’s illustrations?

>106 2wonderY: says Judy White did the illustrations.

While looking for Judy White I found this illustrator, Judy Watson...LOVE her stuff!

https://judywatson.net/about/

Ah!

Hello people!

I haven’t had anything to add since January and all of a sudden, I will have several to report on.

I stopped in Barnes & Noble this evening. In their display of nice classic children’s books I found this:



Price $15 hardcover, bonded leather, smallish format

Cover design by Kelly Thorn.

I was glad to page through it, as it’s illustrated by Nancy Barnhart, way back in 1922. I knew of her, but she was pretty obscure, and I thought I’d never find them.

And as research, I discovered the entire original Sterling Publisher contents here:

https://fiftywordsforsnow.com/ebooks/willows/

So you can examine the plates as well. Scroll down and each plate can be gotten to from the illustrations page itself.

12 plates, 7 in color. Mole looks stupid in plate 6 - wrong nose entirely.
Otherwise, they are pleasant, if unremarkable.

The books are shrink wrapped.
Open to examine. The gilt edges are sloppily done, leaking onto the page and causing pages to stick together. Not a nice way to separate them. Tears the page a bit.

This same book is advertised for sale elsewhere for $35+. Why?

I’ve got a few more items to share in the coming week.

recent article in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/18/recently-discovered-wind-in-the-wi...

(A couple of weeks ago I picked up a paperback copy of Wind in the Willows at a flea market... the illustrations were by: E.H. Shepard)

I stumbled upon another sequel; obscure and probably not authorized.



In the Wake of the Willows transfers the crew and their extended families to the mouth of an unnamed river in New England, probably Massachusetts. There is no narrative explanation within the story; but the author is an avid naturalist from there, as he explains in the forward.
Unfortunately, he is not a particularly good storyteller. It feels as if he is manufacturing crises instead of allowing the events to unfold naturally. And he foreshadows events in an annoying way, at the end of chapters.
He does an okay job of phrasing at times, but the main characters are frequently given the title “Mr.” which Grahame rarely does.
I like bits. One character name is Peevish McWeasel. But the gathering spot is a tavern, rather than homes or riverside picnic spots. And the Beaver uses a noisy chainsaw. (??)

Despite the awful cover, the interior illustrations are nice. Amy Thurber does not attempt to draw the characters. Most drawings are chapter headings. This is one of the rare full page pictures, and shows her skill with a pencil:



This prompted me to dig out an authorized sequel, Return to the Willows, and savor its excellence again.

Thanks for the additions. I don't know if my granddaughters have been introduced to TWITW yet...perhaps it is time?

Yes, but start with single chapter books or one of the good re-tellings. I have a couple of extras I will add to your box.

The Ladybird Classics has got appealing pictures by Cliff Wright and saves some of the best phrasings.

There is a Talk conversation going on about organizing cover images. Out of curiosity, I went to my favorite page to count covers.

TWITW has over 1,600 cover images, about half are member uploaded and the rest are Amazon covers. One image is there 15 times, 10 Amazons.

But I saw this cover and had to scratch my head:

There are some really weird covers online. I think at least some must be computer-generated.

Another version has just become available on Early Reviewers:

https://www.librarything.com/ner/detail/47866/The-Wind-in-the-Willows