(illustration from Arabian Nights)

   

Rackham's early work showed facility but little else. The humor and romance and soul that were to make him the premier illustrator of the early twentieth century had not manifested themselves yet. In 1892, he left his clerk position at the Westminster Fire Office for the uncertainty of a career as an illustrator. He landed a regular job at the Westminster Budget, a weekly magazine, that provided him with regular work as a reporter as he tackled the burgeoning book market. His first efforts were decidedly non-fantasy and are very indicative of an artist in search of a style. His first book illustrations were published in 1893 and they were mostly reused images from magazines or books featuring the work of several illustrators (Tales of a Traveller is one such).The first book with illustrations done specifically on commission was in 1896. That book, The Zankiwank and The Bletherwitch (see image to right), to my mind marks the first hints of the lighter side of Rackham. Maybe it was all that "clerking" and the discipline required as a reporter, but his early work is stiff and, frankly, boring. If it didn't have his name on it, I wouldn't look at it twice if I saw it in a magazine. The Zankiwank... isn't high fantasy art, but there are images that presage, if not greatness, then at least the joyous frivolity that was to be an important component of his work. Also evident is the influence of Charles Robinson, whose A Child's Garden of Verses had been released to much acclaim the year before.

Nineteen more book assignments followed during the 1890's, with dozens of pictures for two major children's magazines: Cassell's and Little Folks and even one for the venerable St. Nicholas. It's intriguing to watch the progression of subject matter of the books during this period. His second book was In the Evening of His Days. A Study of Mr Gladstone in Retirement, his third Bracebridge Hall by Washington Irving. His fourth and sixth were The Money-Spinner and other Character Notes and Captain Castle. A Tale of the China Seas. He did another boy's adventure book titled Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, and several books on English Gardens and hunting and fishing. Not really the stuff of fantasy and fairy tales, but there was The Ingoldsby Legends in 1898 (with 12 color plates and 80 line drawings - like the skeleton at left!) and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm in 1900 (with a color frontispiece and 95 pen & ink drawings). By far his greatest efforts were being expended in the service of fantasy - at least if you only count quantity. The Ingoldsby Legends, by the way, was radically revised and updated in 1907.

Through the teens and twenties he continued to create wonderful images and books. Many of vellum-bound limited editions of the era are from Rackham. Many of his books were revised and re-released. There was even a Peter Pan portfolio. It seems like every classic was fair game for him. Through 1940 he did versions of Aesop's Fables, Mother Goose, A Christmas Carol, The Romance of King Arthur, English Fairy Tales, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Irish Fairy Tales, A Fairy Book, The Allies Fairy Book, Comus, A Wonder Book, The Tempest, The Vicar of Wakefield, The Chimes, The Night Before Christmas, The Compleat Angler, The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, The King of the Golden River, Goblin Market, The Pied Piper, Peer Gynt, The Wind in the Willows and more. Note how many of these same titles were also issued with illustrations by Edmund Dulac.

He never lost the joy and sense of wonderment and he never gave in to the baser styles that fell in and out of favor over the years. From Queen Victoria's death in 1901 to the start of World War I, Rackham's illustrations preserved a lifestyle and a sensibility that kept the frighteningly modern future at bay. His beautiful drawings were the antithesis of the industrial advances that allowed them to be printed at affordable prices. Even into the twenties and thirties, his art was a constant reminder of those aspects of innocence that had been left behind. He always kept his gentle humor and his Wind in the Willows (at left), published posthumously in 1940, is as much a children's classic as his Peter Pan. Rackham died in 1939.

 

Guglielmo Marconi Conducting an Early Experiment in Wireless Telegraphy in His Father's Garden by T.h. Robinson

Harry came to London from New Zealand in 1901. He was 23 years old and determined to make his mark on the then-flourishing magazine and book market. He didn't. For two years he struggled, studied and sold the occasional spot drawing. It wasn't until the editor of Little Folks magazine gave him a commission to illustrate a story with an animal that he found his calling. Suddenly he could do no wrong. By 1903 he was illustrating books for the editor of Little Folks, writing and illustrating his own books, and in demand by nearly every publisher in London.

Animals, animals, animals. Books, magazines, annuals. From 1903 to 1942, Rountree's pens and brushes gave life to every species from dormice to dinosaurs. His 1908 Alice in Wonderland, with 90+ color plates, is considered to be both his masterpiece and one of the definitive versions of the Carroll classic. He returned to the tale later in his career and the mouse above is one of many endearing images he created (this from The Collins Clear-Type Press c1925 edition).

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