Wonderwall50

Book Bounty: Pauline Baynes

(I got my income tax return a couple of weeks ago and got a batch of books, many of which I've had my eye on for quite a while. I intend to go over them during the next week, to list and briefly discuss them.)

Pauline Baynes is most famous for illustrating C. S. Lewis' Narnia books and several short works by J. R. R. Tolkien, but her prolific and distinctive talent did so much more over the years. I bought four more of the books she illustrated, and show here samples from each.

The Dragon of Og (1981), by Rumer Godden, is based on a legend of the Scottish lowlands, and reads like a combination of The Reluctant Dragon and Farmer Giles of Ham. I love Baynes' dragons, and there is an ample showcase for her draconian style here.

The Isle of Gramarye (1970), an anthology of the poetry of magic, edited by Jennifer Westwood. Of particular interest to me was the illustration for J. R. R. Tolkien's Errantry, showing his "merry passenger" fighting giant bees; also the pictures of the Great Selkie od Skule Skerry and Thomas Rhymer meeting the Queen of Faerie.

A Dictionary of Chivalry (1968), by Grant Uden. This is a copy of a book we had in our own public library that I always wanted to delve into, but because it was filed as a reference book it could not be checked out. Which was a shame, because it is a lovely browsing book; many of the entries are like tiny short stories. Every one of its 379 pages has illustrations by Pauline Baynes, many time multiples to a page, illuminating details that bring the age alive. Pictures from here include Arthur drawing the sword from the stone amidst many animals, Sir Thomas Malory in prison, and Blondin the minstrel.

A Family Book of Nursery Rhymes (1964) by Iona and Peter Opie, is another book full of pictures by Baynes, tiny little gems scattered all over the pages, ranging in style from Medieval to Eighteenth Century.

Pondering What To Write

Pauline Baynes: Alternate Visions

Pauline Baynes is familiar to most people as the illustrator of C. S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles, and, to a lesser extent, the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. But as a professional artist she produced work for many more books, magazines, and posters. Seeing these often causes a weird sensation for me, like seeing an alternate world that has gone on for years, side by side with the familiar one, but unknown.

10 Books A Day: #10

The Crock Of Gold...James Stephens...Collier

The Complete Fairy Tales Of George Macdonald...George Macdonald...Schocken Books

The Field Guide To Extraterrestrials: A Complete Overview Of Alien Lifeforms--Based On Actual Accounts And Sightings...Patrick Huyghe...Avon

Nanny McPhee: The Collected Tales Of Nurse Matilda...Christianna Brand...Bloomsbury Publishing

Saint George And The Dragon...Edmund Spenser, Adapted by Standol Stoddard Warburg, Illustrated By Pauline Baynes...Houghton Mifflin Company

Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration In An Age Of Unbelief...Joseph Pearce...Ignatius

Here, There Be Dragons: The Chronicles Of The Imaginarium Geographica...James A. Owens...Simon Pulse

The Nip And Tuck War...Mary Mian...Hale/Cadmus

The Impossible People: A History Natural And Unnatural Of Beings Terrible And Wonderful...Georgess McHargue...Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston

The Savage Sword Of Conan Volume 1...Dark Horse Comics

The Savage Sword Of Conan Volume 2...Dark Horse Comics

Watchmen...Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons...DC Comics

Medieval Beasts...Ann Payne...New Amsterdam Books

Why I Left Jehovah's Witnesses...Ted Dencher...Christian Literature Crusade

Index Of Watch Tower Errors...ed. David A. Reed...Baker Book House Co.

The Oxford Dictionary Of Nursery Rhymes...ed. Peter and Iona Opie...Oxford University Press

This tenth (and somewhat lengthy) list brings us to the end of the first shelf on the right hand wall of my house.

The Crock of Gold is one of those wild, individual fantasies (like Lud-in-the-Mist or The Circus of Dr. Lao) that were produced before writers decided to get stuck in the furrow that Tolkien had plowed. Hard to describe; it involves a boy and a girl, a philosopher who is an expert on everything but real life, the god Pan, leprechauns, some policemen, and the old gods of Ireland. Concerns humor, adventure, love, and the heart's true calling. And a crock of gold.

Nanny McPhee is a collection of stories somewhat in the Mary Poppins style, but with far naughtier children and a much uglier "nanny." Originally published in Great Britain as the "Nurse Matilda" books, the name was changed because Americans would confuse the term nurse used as a child caretaker with a medical nurse, and Matilda with the Roald Dahl movie.

I first realized while reading this version of the Saint George story that C. S. Lewis was writing the Narnia stories in the Spenserian mode, with a blend of mythological, folkloric, and religious motifs. The Pauline Baynes pictures were a big hint (the picture of George fighting Error reproduced above could illustrate Rilian's fighting the Green Lady). Warburg modernizes many of Spenser's terms for clarity; Spenser was even 400 hundred years ago writing in a deliberately archaic style to evoke the mood.

Here, There Be Dragons...oh, Lord, it's not good. Owens also illustrates this book, and it is clear that his talent lies more in vivid illustration than in telling a tale or developing a myth. The story concerns the adventures of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams before they became writers, as they visit a magical land to protect an important magic tome, handed over to them by a mysterious mentor who turns out to be...H. G. Wells! A painful experience to anyone who knows anything about the people involved. The fact that he could market two sequels is a tribute to the scramble of publishers in the wake of the Potter books for any "juvenile" fantasy series. A fascinating train wreck to watch unfold.

The Impossible People is one of the first volumes of folklore I ever owned. I got my original copy for ten cents at a school book sale when I was about 11; this hardback I ordered just this year. We read the cover off our old copy; I remember our amusement when the description of a Hag ("females of great age, with bent backs, rheumy eyes, clawlike hands, sunken cheeks, long noses, wispy hair, and sometimes pointed teeth") perfectly fit our third grade teacher. Informative and well-organized, presented without any embellishments or speculation, it is a great introduction for a young reader to creatures of legend and fairy tale.

Pauline Baynes

Pauline Baynes passed away at her home in Surrey on August the third, just one month shy of her 86th year. She was the original illustrator of all the Narnia books, of Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Bilbo's Last Song, of maps of Middle-Earth, and of many other books.

I first saw her drawings when I bought The Tolkien Reader in the mid-70's. Her style influenced me deeply, especially my dragons, as first I traced and re-traced her picture of Chrysophylax Dives, and then took to free-handing my own.

It was with some surprise and pleasure that I found out that she was still alive and producing in the late 90's; I had felt that surely anything so good must belong in the Long Gone Times. The above picture of her, which might be described as her official portrait, is from when she was producing the Narnia Chronicles illustrations back in the Fifties. A much more recent photo featured in Brian Sibley's tribute to this great lady shows she had weathered into one of those amazing, fabulous creatures that only professional British women seem to become.

A melancholy fact that has tinged my whole day. Some mourning to mark her passing; a truly creative person who has subtly touched millions with her art, whose death is hardly a blip on the worldly radar. But we know, and salute her.