Valediction Number 25 This Year: Next Year

Brian Alderson wraps up a book whose illustrator deserves more attention.

When the next batch of books from the Alderson Collection goes to the University of Newcastle Library they may include a quantity of fictional stories from the period between the two wars. Most of these will be by little known authors (apart of course from Arthur Ransome and Eleanor Farjeon) but there will be several totally unknown illustrators.

The period was in fact remarkable for the development of book illustration. Quite apart from the foundation of the Society of Wood Engravers, little of whose work was done for children, there were many illustrators working for regular publishers such as Jonathan Cape and J M Dent, whose names should be preserved even though they did good work for which they were probably paid about tuppence. They may be mentioned in Tessa Chester’s section of the History of Children’s Book Illustration, which she wrote with Irene Whalley but it was a pity that she was not given more space to dwell on them.

Among them would be Harold Jones whose earliest book illustrations, other than jackets, would be done for the holiday adventures, Ransome style, by M.E.Atkinson about the Lockett family. He had a highly distinctive style of drawing which gave a special character to the stories (both I and my late wife separately remember those early pre-war books, especially for their illustration).

Although he was shamefully never accorded an entry in the Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, he must have made a considerable impression at that time and in 1937 his full colour picture book with colour lithograph illustrations was published by Faber & Faber. This Year: Next Year was a book of verses by Walter De La Mare with distinguished pictures throughout by Jones, although I am puzzled by the published result. I can find no explanation as to how the poems arrived because they are not very good and I have a theory that Harold may have written a set of verses himself which Faber did not deem suitable. It so happens that De La Mare’s son, Richard, was a Director of Faber and it would have been quite easy for him to commission the text by his father for Jones’ pictures. Faber, typically, have never replied to my query and I am sorry to say that the wonderful history of the company published in 2019 confined itself to books for adults although Faber would prove to be one of the most important of children’s book publishers since their beginnings in 1925 as Faber & Gwyer. Their original children’s book editor, who introduced several fine picture books from the United States was their Sales Manager, William Crawley.

Harold Jones sustained his reputation after the war, mostly with versions of folk tales or bible stories (and, alas, a forbidden book about a Golliwog) but his most famous work was done in 1954 in Lavender’s Blue, the nursery rhyme collection compiled by Kathleen Lines, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary as a boxed edition in 2004.

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

Walter De La Mare [?] This Year: Next Year. Illustrated by Harold Jones. London; Faber and Faber Limited. October 1937. 250 x 185 mm. [64]pp. Varying placing of contents including verses by De La Mare, the coloured illustrations drawn on the stone by Harold Jones. Baynard Press. Coloured paper over boards to front and back, lettering to spine. Fixed and free end papers with coloured lithographs front and back. Coloured dust jacket as binding, blank flaps except price 7s 6d.