Knave of Hearts

While doing some Christmas shopping, I ran across a lovely new facsimile edition of The Knave of Hearts, by Louise Saunders, with the beautiful illustrations by Maxfield Parrish. This is published by Calla Books, and they've done a very nice job of it - the book is a large hardcover, the same scale as the original 1925 edition, and printed on heavyweight paper. The front cover has a color pastedown, like the original, and the overall effect is very impressive!

The printing quality of the illustrations is not quite as high as the first edition, as they haven't been reproduced from the original paintings, but they are all there in full color. Interestingly, a couple seem to have been reproduced from House of Art prints, rather than book illustrations - these are some of Parrish's best known book illustrations, and several were popular as art prints in their own right.

Maxfield Parrish illustrated L. Frank Baum's first published book for children, Mother Goose in Prose. It might have been interesting had he continued on and illustrated the Oz series - the books would have had quite a different look, I think! Now if someone would publish a full size facsimile of Mother Goose.....

The book is available on Amazon.com, and makes a fine gift for any Parrish lover!