Thursday, July 19, 2012

Full-of-Time Tales

H.J. Ford is one of my favorites for illustrating timeless tales, or maybe full-of-time tales, such as those of Troy and Greece. This is a book fairly available on-line and elsewhere, but these are my scans before I lovingly set this volume free into the world via trade credit.

H.J. Ford — Tales of Troy & Greece — 1910 edition


















8 comments:

Annie said...

These are so beautiful. Thank you for posting them. I love his work for the detail and the composition; the drama and the expression. With every illustration, he creates a complete world.

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Hi Annie! Oh, I do love Ford's work and even though it is available here and there, I'm going to continue to post the favorites that I've scanned.

I've hesitated to post many of my scans of various wonders because they have already been seen 'round the net, but what the heck, I like my scans and it's not gonna hurt anyone to see great stuff again.

Annie said...

Please keep posting them! Your scans are always of the highest quality! And your readers are always learning about artists they may not yet know.

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

YAY!!!

Darrell said...

That reminds me--when I was a small child, the older brothers and sisters kept a library of assorted books in the closet of the back bedroom. One day I found a book of Greek mythology, which had really great illustrations (not this artist's work, though). I was fascinated, and read the book cover to cover. I even did a book report on it for school, and the teacher accused me of faking it--no kid that age would read such a book.

several decades later, I was at a yard sale one day, and one old book's cover caught my eye--it was the same book I'd read as a child. I bought it, took it home and read it again, and enjoyed the illustrations all over again. It is Mythology, by Edith Hamilton. First published in 1940. Illustrations are by Steele Savage (what a name!). It's a paperback, a Mentor book, first edition in June, 1953. From Savage's wikipedia entry:

"Harry Steele Savage (1900–1970)[1] was an American illustrator, primarily of books for children and young adults. He is probably best known for the illustrations in Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Other books he illustrated include The Arabian Nights (Bennett Cerf, 1932, Triangle Books),[2] Stories of the Gods and Heroes by Sally Benson, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible (Revised edition), and The Golden Library Book of Bible Stories by Jonathan Braddock.[3] He drew several posters and covers for science fiction books and magazines that appeared in the 1960s and 1970s.[4][5] He was also an illustrator of World War II era posters such as the recruiting poster: For Your Country's Sake Today, For Your Own Sake Tomorrow."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steele_Savage

Examples of his work might even be worthy of showing here. Great blog, btw.

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Excellent, thanks Darrell. I do have a bit of his work around here somewhere, I will try to locate it.

I tell ya, illustrators are the gatekeepers to the great citadel of words, inspiring children beyond their norm, your example case in point.

Anonymous said...

Hun says:
The more you publish, the more I am flabbergasted: How and when did you ever find time, energy and space to find and store all these goodies?
And HOW can you nowadays ever again find them in your collection?
Thanks, Thom!

Thomas Haller Buchanan said...

Hun, 'tis a task of love and bewilderment.