The Art of Book Design: Mighty Mikko: Finnish Folk and Fairy Tales, Part1

Parker Fillmore. Mighty Mikko: Finnish Folk Tales and Fairy Tales. Illustrated by Jay Van Everen. New York : Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922.

I’m overdue for highlighting Finnish Fairy Tales so our book this week contains a wealth of old Finnish folk stories translated for an English-speaking audience. Illustrator Jay Van Everen breathes life into the stories using graphic, modern drawings with geometric and abstract elements. There is only 1 colour plate in Mighty Mikko, but Van Everen was best known for his bright, colourful abstract paintings. Nonetheless, Van Everen’s black and white drawings for Mighty Mikko are bold and full of interest. The artist uses 2 different styles of illustration in the book – one for the first half of traditional tales and another for the second half of the book which contains the continuing saga of Mikko. Both styles are interesting and worth a good look so I’m going to break this post into 2 parts. Part 2 will be posted next Saturday.

Enjoy!

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The Art of Book Design: Olga Romanov

 

Olga Romanoff or The Syren of the Skies. A Sequel to “The Angel of the Revolution.” George Griffith. London: Tower Publishing Company Limited, 1894. First edition, first issue.

This book is a futuristic science fiction story told in melodramatic Victorian prose. The story was originally serialized in Pearson’s Weekly of London.

 

Cover photo via: Books and Art

The book is available to read at Project Gutenberg Australia

The Art of Book Design: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Washington Irving. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Cover Art by Margaret Armstrong. New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899.

The art nouveau cover of this 1899 edition of the classic book bears little resemblance to the plain editions that preceded it or to its many subsequent dark and creepy covers.

 

Cover photo via: Books and Art

The book is available to read at The Internet Archive

The Art of Book Design: Winnie The Pooh

A.A. Milne. Winnie The Pooh. Illustrations by Ernest A. Shepherd. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1961.

A.A. Milne. Winnie The Pooh. Illustrations by Ernest A. Shepherd. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1961.

A.A. Milne. Winnie The Pooh. Illustrations by Ernest A. Shepherd. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1961.

It isn’t exactly a fairy tale, but I’m feeling nostalgic and this is one of my favourite books from childhood. My mother read to me every night until long after I could read for myself and this was the book that I most often asked for. I loved the gentle ways of Pooh and his friends and my mom had different voices for each of the characters that brought the book to life. The edition above is from 1961 and it’s the one that we had in our little library. I wish I could say that I still had it, but when my parents divorced it went missing along with a lot of other books that were likely passed down to another child in our neighbourhood. [Read more…]