Showing posts with label Richard Scarry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richard Scarry. Show all posts

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Richard Scarry: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Richard Scarry's cover illustration for the Little Golden Book reissue of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer looks very familiar. Either I owned the book or else a close friend did. I'm quite sure I didn't read it though. Robert L. May's story was adapted by Barbara Shook Hazen circa 1965 when the 1958 Little Golden Book illustrated by Scarry was reissued.

Richard Scarry, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 
Original book cover art. New York: Simon & Schuster, c. 1965

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21029/lot/1276/

The presale estimate was $6,000 to $9,000.

Richard Scarry, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 
A Little Golden Book, Simon & Schuster, c. 1965



Note:  Illustrator Richard Scarry contributed to When I was a Child which is discussed on the blog here.

 Attempted Bloggery's growing archive of Christmas posts may be seen here.

It's officially winter today! Wintry blog posts may be seen here.

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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Maurice Sendak: When I Was a Child

When I Was a Child is a thin softbound volume collecting the reminiscences of a number of writers and artists. It was published in 1992 by Bibliopolo Press, an imprint of the University of Connecticut for the Children's Literature Association. Contributors include Laurent de Brunhoff, Madeleine L'Engle, Alison Lurie, Richard Scarry, and Jane Yolen, among many others. The volume is apparently scarce and I haven't been able to find Maurice Sendak's cover art on the internet, so today I'm taking the opportunity to remedy the situation once and for all.

Maurice Sendak, When I Was a Child Book Cover, January 1992


Maurice Sendak, When I Was a Child Book Cover, January 1992

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Sunday, September 18, 2011

New York is Book Country Poster Art

New York is Book Country was a literary Manhattan street fair featuring booksellers usually held this time of year. Most of the time it took place on Fifth Avenue between 48th and 57th Streets. Fifth Avenue was closed to automobile traffic for the duration. In later years, it was moved to Washington Square Park and to Central Park.

The book festival began in 1979 and was held annually. In recent years the fair, like the booksellers it featured, seemed to be in trouble. It was on hiatus from 2005 to 2007 and was cancelled without explanation in 2010. There is no word on whether it is coming back again, but I've taken the liberty of writing about it in the past tense. Here is some of the incredible poster art commissioned for the fair. In some years, there was more than one splendid poster produced. New York was Book Country.
1979, Edward Gorey


1979, Maurice Sendak



1979, Maurice Sendak, Original Artwork
Image added January 16, 2013

1979, Maurice Sendak pencil sketch

105. SENDAK, Maurice Bernard (b.1928).
A large scale original pencil sketch for the 1979 “New York is Book Country” promotional poster. [New York: June? 1979]. Pencil on paper (visible image area: 21 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches; 545 x 445mm.), with text “New York is Book Country” sketched in at the head, and below a giant Wild Thing (Moishe) sitting cross-legged, reading a book by the light from a shaded lamp shining from the top of the Empire State Building. The Wild Thing's elbow rests on an upper section of the building. Signed in pencil “Maurice Sendak” towards the lower right corner. Matted, framed and glazed.Provenance : acquired directly from the artist
[ With :] 
A colored poster titled “New York is Book Country / September 16, 1979”. [ New York]: printing and production courtesy of Viking Penguin, Inc., distribution courtesy of Harper & Row, publishers, Inc., 1979. Colored poster (24 x 19 inches; 610 x 480mm.), signed in blue ink to the right and just below the image, which depicts a gigantic Wild Thing (Moishe) sitting cross-legged, reading “Villettte” by Charlotte Brontë (by the light shed from the lamp-shaded top of the Empire State Building) whilst eating a Big Apple. The Wild Thing's elbow rests on an upper section of the building. Three King Kong-esque bi-planes circle above, their pilots hidden but apparently engrossed in a book resting open on the fusilage of each aircraft. Reproduced in Posters by Maurice Sendak (New York: Harmony Books/Crown, 1986), page 11.
a unique original sketch for one of maurice sendak’s most famous posters, featuring one of his most famous creations, and accompanied by an original of the published poster, signed in ink by the artist .The poster was printed in a run of no more than a few thousand copies which were distributed and sold only on the day of the first annual autumn festival of books on Fifth Avenue, on 16 September 1979. Maurice Sendak put in an appearance at the festival for only a short time during the day when he autographed a limited number of these posters. The preliminary drawing, besides being a great image, gives some hint as to alternatives that Mr. Sendak was considering: the Wild Thing holds the book that he is reading (rather than holding an apple) and the light at the top of the Empire State is present as both a lampshade and a directional light, more akin to the shade of an “Angle-poise” lamp. On a more fanciful level, the relative solidity of the Empire State Building versus the wispy unformed nature of Moishe (the Wild Thing), gives the drawing a different more dream-like quality, which the matter-of-fact finished poster does not have. 
est. $5000 – £8000
Sold for $5000
Sale NY002, 24th October 2007

Added to post December 8, 2011  

http://bloomsburyauctions.com/detail/NY002/105.0




1980, Pierre Le-Tan
Added to post November 27, 2011

1980, Richard Scarry
Image added April 10, 2015


1981, Arnold Lobel

Image updated April 20, 2015

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/16235813_new-york-is-book-country-september-20-1981-pos



1982, James Stevenson
Added to post November 13, 2011

1983, Sandra Boynton
Added to post November 13, 2011



1984, William Steig
Added to post November 13, 2011



1985, Keith Haring




1989, Berkely Breathed
Image added April 10, 2015

Does this poster art look familiar? It was also used on the cover of Classics of Western Literature:  Bloom County 1986-1989 (Little, Brown, 1990).
Berkely Breathed, Classics of Western Literature:  Bloom County 1986-1989 (Little, Brown, 1990)
Image added April 10, 2015


1990, Chris Van Allsburg
 Image updated October 28, 2012
1991, William Joyce
Image updated Aptil 20, 2015




1992, Faith Ringgold
Added to post November 13, 2011





1992, Faith Ringgold, Original Artwork, ACA Galleries
Image added October 28, 2012
http://acagalleries.com/past-exhibitions/year-2010/faith-ringgold-coming-to-jones-road-and-other-story-quilts/

Image added October 28, 2012
http://acagalleries.com/past-exhibitions/year-2010/faith-ringgold-coming-to-jones-road-and-other-story-quilts/


1993, Hilary Knight
Image updated April 20, 2015

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/16235809_new-york-is-book-country-poster-signed-by-illus



1994, Lane Smith

Image updated April 20, 2015




Lane Smith, Original Artwork
Image updated October 28, 2012


1995, James Gurney
 Image updated October 28, 2012



1995, James Gurney, Original Artwork



1996, Daniel Pelavin



1997, Margaret Cusack, Original Artwork
Image Courtesy of the Artist
Added January 16, 2013





1997 Logo

1998, Maurice Sendak
Image updated April 10, 2015

1999, Leo and Diane Dillon
 Image updated October 28, 2012







2000, Robert Sabuda
Image added July 27, 2014

2000, Robert Sabuda
New York is Book Country founder Linda Exman holds the poster. 
See also C-Span video link
Lower image added January 16, 2013




[2001, Street fair cancelled following 9/11]



2002, Art Spiegelman
 Image updated October 28, 2012



2003, Jim Lee
Added January 16, 2013
2003, Jim Lee
Original Artwork
Image added January 16, 2013


2003, Jim Lee and Scott Williams
Original Artwork
Image added September 8, 2019

2003, Maurice Sendak
Image updated October 28, 2012








 
2003 Logo


2004, Ian Falconer



2004, Tara McPherson




2004, Tara McPherson
Preliminary sketch






[2005-2007, No street fair held]


2008 Logo, Venue moved to Central Park



2008 Logo

[2010, Cancelled permanently]


I'd be interested in hearing from anyone with better scans or images of some of the missing posters. If your image would help to make this post better, please contact me: docnad (at) aol (dot) com.

 November 20, 2011 Update:  About a week ago I was delighted to receive an email from acc12 on hubpages.com. She had written an informative hub, as they call it there, on the history of New York is Book Country. I strongly recommend it and you can read it here.  As we had each found different examples of the fair's posters, we were each able to supplement our images considerably. In addition, acc12's information enabled me to correct the dates on the Hilary Knight and Lane Smith posters. On the other hand, there are two posters new to me wherein neither one of us can identify the artist. Your help is still greatly needed here, readers.

November 27, 2011 Update: Thanks to reader UUCP for providing in the comments section some of the missing information on these posters, including the identity of the artist for the 1992 poster, Faith Ringgold. Thanks also for the link to the 1980 poster by Pierre Le-Tan, which somehow I was not able to find on my own.


October 24, 2012 Update:  Thanks to reader tahrialah for identifying the 1990 poster artist as Chris Van Allsburg.


Notes:  My most recent post on Maurice Sendak's art is here.

My post on Charles Schulz's Butternut Bread Peanuts Promotions is here.

I haven't written any posts yet on James Gurney, but he does appear as an artiste provocateur in the George Booth post here.

I posted a book review of Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers here.

Finally, my previous post concerning poster art in general is here.



Just a few links on some of my earlier sources:


Image added September 5, 2013
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/09/03/maurice-sendak-posters-reading-books/

The William Joyce, etc., photo (no longer a part of this post):  http://www.flickr.com/photos/vard/166967011/

The James Gurney poster photo (no longer a part of this post):  http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2008/04/confusing-time-for-sunday-brunch.html
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