1930s Illustrated Children's Books, Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales and Robin Hood: The Windermere Series - 2 Pieces

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Title 1: Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales: The Windermere Series.
Translated from the Dutch by: Valdemar Paulsen.
Illustrator: Milo Winter.
Copyright … Read more Title 1: Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales: The Windermere Series.
Translated from the Dutch by: Valdemar Paulsen.
Illustrator: Milo Winter.
Copyright 1916, edition of 1940.

Title: 2: Robin Hood: The Windermere Series.
Author: Edith Heal, Philip Allen (Introduction by).
Publication date: Copyright 1928, edition of 1935.

Publisher: Rand McNally & Company.
Origin: New York, NY.

Description: 912 Pp. ( T1; 286 p. T2; 626 p.) 8vo. Black publisher's cloth hardcovers, silver gilt title/design on front/spine covers with color plates, black/white illustrated endpapers, black/white woodblock and color plate illustrations throughout text.

Measures: 1.75 (3.5 overall) W x 6.5 D x 9.25 H inches.

Notes: T1; Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales, a literary genre he so mastered that he himself has become as mythical as the tales he wrote. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories - called events, or "fantastic tales" - express themes that transcend age and nationality.

During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted children worldwide and was feted by royalty. Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature listeners/readers as well. They have inspired motion pictures, plays, ballets, and animated films.

T2; a retelling of the Robin Hood legend. Edith Heath understood that a 600+ page book published in 1926, with only a few woodcut illustrations, was not likely to capture the interest of the average 10-year-old. Ms Heal has taken all the myths, tales, and ballads about Robin Hood and woven them into a single, easy tale, told in pseudo-Elizabethan English. Robin, inspired by his boyhood heroes -- Hereward the Saxon outlaw and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury -- chooses a life of poking fun at the Norman lords who treat the Saxon natives of England as their inferiors, but shuns violence, and dreams of a day when Normans and Saxons will become a single race called English. Robin revels in mockery and practical jokes, but loses his temper easily when the joke is turned on him. He is a deeply religious man whose love for the wild young lady Marian FitzWalter borders almost on the paternal. Marian, on the other hand, clearly idolizes the outlaw hero with something of a teenage crush. The two share banter, but little more. Robin's main enemies are the Sheriff of Nottingham, the Bishop of Hereford, Prince John, and the crafty Sir Guy of Gisbourne, who plots to wed his pathetic son Geoffrey to Marian. Sherwood Forest is an idealized utopia, where the outlaws have fun all day long in an England where it never rains, and share a deep bond of brotherly love which in places borders on the homoerotic. The story follows Robin from his boyhood to travels in France to the founding of the outlaw band and even to his own death, which is a part of the legend which doesn't tend to make it into the movies. Ms Heal manages to evoke the twelfth century in a way that is both colorful and as comfortable as an old armchair. If you enjoy the tales of Robin Hood and can lay hands on a copy of this book, it is definitely worth a read. See less