Author as Artist Many artists began as authors and vice versa. Here are some authors in an uncharacteristically visual mode.

1. Evelyn Waugh The author's own design, 12 x 18cms, titlepagefor Vile Bodies 1930.

2. Rudyard Kipling, illustration to the Just So Stories

3. CHARLES KINGSLEY English Illustrated Magazine 1892/3 pp. 446 - 451 15 x 24cms. The Lay of Earl Harold written and illustrated by CK The style is rather old fashioned for the early 'eighties - reflecting the spare line and preciosity of the Pre-Raphaeilte graphic style around 1852. One doubts if Kingsley would have earned his living in the medium.

4. George Sand and a lively set of well differentiated faces of the writer's circle, including (upper left, smoking) the composer, Chopin. 31 x 19 cms.
 
5. 6. from Thackeray's own tale, The Rose and the Ring or the History of Prince Giglio and Prince Bulbo , Murray London 1854

7.8. 9. H.G.Wells The Adventures of Tommy. This was drawn by HGW in 1898 when ill in bed. It tells the story of a rich, proud man rescued from the sea by a boy called Tommy. The latter spurns bags of cash and is given an elephant. 

10. W.S.Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan). A sheet of snappy poems and a variety of images about a comical policeman.

11. W.M.Thackeray from an illustrated letter explaining he was about to leave the country when an invitation caused him to change his plans. Thackeray, like Waugh, had formally attended an art school. He went on to produce much commercial illustration, and his eye for (glittering) detail often influenced his prose style, and observations in the text. He was so ill served by his engravers that his reputation as an image maker has been unfairly diminished.

12 - 15 woodcuts by Robert Louis Stevenson from MORAL EMBLEMS 1921

16. Illustrations by Saint-Exupery for Le Petit Prince.

 

 

Jacques Prevert's intervention in his book 1952

Arthur Ransome's illustrations to his own books

Capt.W.E.Johns the author of BIGGLES took up painting after the first world war and, after a period of unemployment, re-joined the RAF in 1920. When he left the RAF in 1927 he worked extensively as an aviation illustrator.This painting for the Illustrated London News 1927 shows the professionalism of his work. He became editor of Popular Flying magazine which saw the creation of hisfictional character Biggles the Flying Ace in 1932

Capt.W.E.Johns in the I Spy Annual 1955 wrote Fishy Business, a Biggles story, accompanied by some highly professional illustrations which may be by Johns himself.