Alice and Martin Provensen VI

Today some treasures from 'The Golden Book of Fun and Nonsense' compiled by Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977)  illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen and published in 1970. some isolated illustrations and other whole pages of magic!

Alice and Martin Provensen V

I am back in a terrible habit of collecting children's books, terrible for my bank, but good for you as you get to see the results of my hoarding. Possibly it is good for me to as it means I am ready to leap into projects I have been brewing. I have to say as time goes on these old picture books are vanishing and it is good to document them. Alice and Martin Provensen are favourites and I bought a couple of historic stories they had illustrated recently, starting with one about Robert Louis Stevenson's Atlantic crossing called 'The Voyage of the Ludgate Hill' by Nancy Willard. published in 1987.

The illustrations are painterly but also strangely flat and seem to reflect the stiffness of Victorian society whilst being full of humour.

Alice and Martin Provensen IV

A new!!!! book by Alice and Martin Provensen, what a Joyous thing, "Max the Cat of Maple Hill Farm", was published from one of the many dummy books left by the couple this September in Japan, translated by Haruno Nakai.

Endpapers from 1950's Children's Books

 

Above: Nu Dang and His Kite, written and illustrated by Jacqueline Ayer, 1959

Above:'Willie Whitetail' by R. W. Eschmeyer, illustrated and designed by Roy K. Wills, 1953.

Above: Josef Lada illustration Czech 1953. Below: Barbara Jones 1960

Above: Charlotte’s Web by EB White, illustrated by Garth Williams, 1952.

Above: The Iliad and the Odyssey, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, 1956.

Above:"Little Golden Books" endpapers (1950) illustrator unknown.

Below: Alice & Martin Provensen for R L Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" (1951)

Above: Hikkerde Pikkerde Paardeboom (1959)Ted Schaap

Above: Pienchen (1954) by Gerhard Oberländer

Above: Fishes of The World by Edouard Le Danois, endpapers illustrated by Jean Norbert, 1957.

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Above: Flowers on a windowsill endpapers from 'Do Kola' (1956) Adolf Zábransky.

Above: "All About the Insect World" by Ferdinand C. Lane, 1954.

Above: 'Zoo Parade' written by Marlin Perkins, illustrated by Paul Bransom, 1954

Above: Petunia by Roger Duvoisin 1950.

Above: The Golden Circus (A Fuzzy Golden Book) written by Kathryn Jackson, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen, 1950.

Above: 'Toby Tyler' by James Otis, Leonard Weisgard, and Nelson Doubleday  1958 

Above: The Brave Little Steam Shovel', written by Alf Evers, illustrated by Dick Stone 1951.

Above: 'Once upon a time stories' published by the children's press London and Glasgow (no date)

Above: 'Bedtime stories' illustrated by Justin Michman, no publication date.

Above 1959 Juliet Kepes endpaper from 'Puptents and Pebbles' written by William Jay Smith