Valediction 22: Feeding the Fowls
It’s an American contribution from Brian Alderson for this issue, and another interesting book packed up.
One reason for rejoicing at the turn of the Century was the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. Celebrations were held across the world and the British Library laid on a splendid display related to his life and work. Since I had been involved in Andersen translations for some time I was asked to cover the section dealing with English translations from 1846. Part of the show related to a hefty volume devoted to what people often called his ‘Fairy Tales’, which are nothing of the sort but mostly stories of his own invention many of which were called in Danish eventyr or historia. His Danish bibliography lists 156 of these, generally known as the Canon, and the hefty British Library edition for which I wrote a Preface, ran to 966 pages including 84 illustrations by various hands (this was also converted to a Folio Society edition in two volumes).
In the course of preparing my Preface I examined a number of complete English translations of the Canon including the expanded collection of 168 stories that had been included in Jean Hersholt’s six volumes for the Limited Editions Club, New York in 1942. As I went through the stories, I was struck by the mysterious appearance of number 148 in the Canon. In none of the stories that I read was there a similar translation for this story included. In the recent British translation by Erik Haugaard he gives the story of Dance, Dance, Dolly Mine and in the British Library edition there is included a 56 page long Lucky Peer which is not part of the Canon anyway and is rarely translated anywhere. What was going on?
A solution was found in consulting the complete Andersen in Danish where number 148 turns out to be not a story at all but a comic poem Sporg Amagermo’er! which, at the time never seems to have been translated into English anywhere.
This presented something of a challenge and I was able to include a manuscript version of my own translation in the exhibition. It is a delightful comedy taking place at a stall in Copenhagen vegetable market which recounts the marriage and sudden death of a carrot. For English readers I converted the market to Covent Garden but left all the details of the marriage and wedding breakfast, to which many other vegetables were invited, as they stood in Andersen’s version.
I was quite pleased with the result and sent a copy to my friend Ian Jackson who was an immensely learned scholar in the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco. He had himself written one or two comic stories which had been illustrated by his wife, Ann Arnold and it struck me that she might be willing to illustrate the carrot story, perhaps in the form of a panorama for children. Back came an instantaneous reply saying that she was already working on it and before very long there turned up in Richmond Ann’s panoramic layout which was as many as 14 feet long. It was a wonderful surprise and has now ended up in the Robinson Library at Newcastle upon Tyne. But that was not the end of it because Ian had a friend at Berkeley who was soon to be married and for whom he turned to the verses for what the Italians call a Libretto per Nozze. A publisher was found and the panorama was converted to a little 28 page picture book in colour Ask the Old Girl, which referred to Anderson’s vegetable seller. Ian, the scholar had also been able to trace at least two English translations of the poem but they were both obscure and unsatisfactory.
To my great sorrow Ian himself was to die before long, although he had also worked with Ann on another picture book based upon a completely unknown set of verses by A. E. Housman. They were drawn from the visitors’ book of the Wise family of Woodchester House near Stroud and are now to be found only in the Lilly Library of Bloomington, Indianna. Questions of copyright were cleared by both Ian and the Lilly Library so there has been no problem of ownership of the text. However, Ann Arnold has copyright in the illustrations which are devoted to the Wise family whose children seem to have been obsessed with ensuring that the family’s chickens should have proper feeding throughout the day.
‘…Did we not feed those fowls before?
We did; but now they want some more.
They seem to think that the proceeding
That they are fittest for is feeding…’
This unknown skit seems never to have been published in Britain but copies from Ann have been received here and a copy is happily passed on to Seven Stories and a copy may go to join the vegetable woman at Newcastle.
Brian Alderson is a long-time and much-valued contributor to Books for Keeps, founder of the Children’s Books History Society and a former Children’s Books Editor for The Times. His most recent book The 100 Best Children’s Books is published by Galileo Publishing, 978-1903385982, £14.99 hbk.
Biblio
- E. Houseman. The Fowls Are Fed. Illustrated by Ann Arnold. [2017]. [1] Picture of eggs in a basket. [2] Blank [3] title-page, as above [4-5] text ‘At peep of day we rise from bed And feed the fowls: fowls are fed – [6-32] And gnash their beaks with grief and spite Because they are not fed at night’. Upper cover: title A. E. Housman. The Fowls are Fed. Illustrations by Ann Arnold. Verso: Introduction unsigned but probably by Ian Jackson. Imprint: Illustrations copyright Ann Arnold 2017. This edition was published in 2017 by Stinehour Editions, South Lunenburg Vermont. ISBN 978-1-944769-33-8. Lower cover both sides blank.
