I read E. T. A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman for a class this year. It is a kind of disturbing and thrilling fairy tale that I had previously only known through Freud’s interpretation in The Uncanny. While reading it, I faintly recalled that this was the same man who authored The Nutcracker, which also always seemed disturbing, what with that seven-headed mouse and all.
So, I went in my xmas-book-archives and found the fabulous edition shown above. I am obsessed, and anyone who has come to my house in the past three weeks has been forced to look at it. It is a translation of the original text, not some dumbed-down and docile version “for children.” Not only that, but it is illustrated by Maurice Sendak, author of the children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are
Detailed illustrations occur throughout the text:
“She is overwhelmed with growing up and has no knowledge of what this means. I think the ballet is all about a strong emotional sense of something happening to her, which is bewildering.” — Maurice Sendak, NPR interview
There are also full-page illustrations, or, best of all, full-page spreads:
During the adventure to the magical capital, there are four beautiful full-page spreads in a row (oh, and a wild thing peeks his head out in one of them!):
Anyway, now that I’ve shown you all that, here’s the bad news: it’s out of print. Here’s the good news: it looks like there are still some old copies for sale on amazon.com in paperback and hardcover.
In my effort to see more “New York City things” before I leave NYC (sniff, sniff), I finally went up the beckoning steps of the New York Public Library.
“Where are the books?” my friend and I asked when we entered. It looked like a museum with all of its marble and stodgy portraits and professional exhibits (AND I did not know the Gutenburg Bible was there! I will have to go back!). Eventually, we found the books, as well as the secret reason I wanted to visit in the first place:
YES. That is the REAL, original Winnie-the-Pooh (aka Edward Bear) and his friends, Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet (now we know why he is so small!), and Tiger. These are the actual toys Christopher Robin Milne were given as a gift from his father, A.A. Milne. The only lost friend is Roo (in an Apple Orchard), since Rabbit and Owl were invented. They were apparently well-played with, both by Christopher and the family dog.
Of course, since I was IN the children’s section, I had to take a quick look around. It’s not the children’s book area of my dreams (or the library of my dreams), but it’s still pretty cool. The murals were superb, and after a million years of internet research, I discovered the artist is Susy Pilgrim Waters (whose style reminds me a lot of Miroslav Sasek — unless that’s just because they are drawings of New York). Tucked away into her web-site, I found an image of all the mural panels:
I happen to really like the Guggenheim (not always the art inside of it, but the shape, which I feel as if I should be allowed to rollerskate down):
Anyway, The New York Public Library (this is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, which is on 42nd and 5th next to Bryant Park) is *free* and open to the public, and also a good set of steps to sit down and eat lunch on : ). Check the hours before taking a trip!
My mom was born in Denmark, and during her most recent trek back to the little country, I asked if she would bring me back a Danish ABC book.
She returned with Halfdan’s ABC book, a wonderfully illustrated — and from the meager amounts I can interpret — funny, ABC book written with slightly less… wholesome… humor than we feed our American kids.
In Book By Its Cover style (okay, well maybe not as cool), I present you with some of my favorite pages from the book.
Jump!
Yasmine, illustrator & owner of the blog A Print a Day (see previous post for more info), has, thus far, had an incredibly interesting life. Here’s the short version. (more…)
Since it’s Book Week here at S&D, the Donut of the Week is aptly book-related. There are actually multiple books about donuts, but I choose to highlight this 1970s children’s book, Who needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty, a cult classic among children and artsy adults. (More pictures etc after the jump.) (more…)
