Treats for Halloween

For my favorite holiday in my favorite season, here are some favorites for Halloween...

The inimitable Vincent Price reading A Hornbook for Witches:



And one of my favorite stories for Halloween, Poor Little Saturday by Madeleine L'Engle. It's collected in A Newbery Halloween, which is a sweet, spooky treasure.

Happy Haunting!

November

I've been reading a lot of poetry with my grandma lately. Here are some of her favorites for November:

portrait of Thomas Hood, artist unknown

No! (November) by Thomas Hood

    No sun—no moon!
        No morn—no noon—
No dawn—no dusk—no proper time of day—
        No sky—no earthly view—
        No distance looking blue—
No road—no street—no “t’other side the way”—
        No end to any Row—
        No indications where the Crescents go—
        No top to any steeple—
No recognitions of familiar people—
        No courtesies for showing ‘em—
        No knowing ‘em!
No traveling at all—no locomotion,
No inkling of the way—no notion—
        “No go”—by land or ocean—
        No mail—no post—
        No news from any foreign coast—
No Park—no Ring—no afternoon gentility—
        No company—no nobility—
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
   No comfortable feel in any member—
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
        November!

unfinished portrait of Christina Rossetti by John Brett

Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you:

But when the leaves hang trembling,

The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I:

But when the trees bow down their heads,

The wind is passing by.

portrait of Lord Tennyson by Alice Hambidge

The Brook by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

 I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorpes, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow-weed and mallow. 

 I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silvery waterbreak
Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows. 

 I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

Fairy Tales for Halloween

The first scary story I ever heard was read to me on a cassette tape by my grandma when I was three years old. In the story, a Scottish folk tale called "The Hobyahs," the villains are ostensibly the bogeymen of the title. However, I always found the callous, dog-dismembering old man to be much more frightening.

(read "The Hobyahs" on Project Gutenberg)

The tale of Mr. Fox shows up in collections of English fairy tales, but has connections to "The Robber Bridegroom," collected by the Grimms, and to Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard." What I love about this story, besides its Gothic imagery, is the heroine's pluck and bravery (described as "high spiritedness" in my print edition).

(Read "Mr. Fox" for yourself here)

The great Angela Carter wrote her own take on the Bluebeard story, which can be found in her fantastic short story collection The Bloody Chamber. Neil Jordan later adapted it as a film, The Company of Wolves. Loosely based on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, it's one of my favorites.

still from The Company of Wolves (1984)

Marking the autumnul equinox

A poem for the first day of my favorite season... "Haunted Houses" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (read by Tom O'Bedlam):

Nerd Tourism, Toronto

I had a few hours free in Toronto this week to fit in some nerdy tourist stops... first to the Bata Shoe Museum, which has a great permanent collection and two brilliant temporary exhibitions (Standing Tall, an exploration of men's heel height and gender identity throughout history, and Fashion Victims, showcasing restrictive, dangerous, poisonous, and flammable clothing and footwear of the Victorian era), then to the Toronto Public Library to see the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy and the Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books.

"chromatic torpedoes" - dye would transfer and stain the wearer's feet

tartan boots, mid-19th Century

poisonous arsenic-dyed Victorian footwear

1920s deep-sea diving boot

sock knitted from human hair, 13th Century

dandified jack boot, early 1700s

despite the Wonderland perspective, my feet are huge compared to most historical shoes

open stacks at the Toronto Public Library

In honor of March Hares...

The very first film adaptation of Lewis Carrol's Alice, filmed in 1903. From the British Film Institute:

"Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the adaptation was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations. Hepworth cast his wife as the Red Queen, and he himself appears as the Frog Footman. Even the Cheshire cat is played by a family pet.

With a running time of just 12 minutes (8 of which survive), Alice in Wonderland was the longest film produced in England at that time. Film archivists have been able to restore the film's original colours for the first time in over 100 years."

West of the Moon

West of the Moon, a truly lovely short film by Brent Bonacorso, based on the book El Monstruo de Colores No Tiene Boca by Roger Omar, an illustrated collection of interviews with hundreds of children about their dreams. You may read more about Omar's project here.

West of the Moon from Brent Bonacorso. Watching in full screen is recommended!

Perigee Moon

In honor of this weekend's perigee moon, the largest of this year, a poem from one of my favorite collections of Mother Goose rhymes, illustrated by Charles Addams (click image to view larger):

Girls and boys, 

Come out to play.

The moon does shine

As bright as day.

Come with a hoop,

Come with a call,

Come with a good will,

Or not at all.

The April Witch

"It's spring, thought Cecy. I'll be in every living thing in the world tonight.

Now she inhabited neat crickets on the tar-pool roads, now prickled in dew on an iron gate... The wind whipped her away over fields and meadows. She saw the warm spring lights of cottages and farms glowing with twilight colors."

- from Ray Bradbury's "The April Witch," a perfect story for a spring night.

Christmas illustrations...

One of the great joys of my childhood was receiving Cricket magazine in the post. Cricket was (and is) an amazing literary magazine for children, full of stories, poems and beautiful illustrations. At a young age it introduced me to some of my favorite authors and illustrators. I still have most of my back issues, many worn from reading and re-reading.

Cricket's covers were always glossy and beautiful. When I was little and living in Hawaii the snowy, wintry pictures made it feel like Christmas despite the balmy temperatures and palm trees. Here are some of my favorite illustrations from winter issues of Cricket, spanning from 1985 to 1993 (click images to view larger)...

"The Little Fir Tree" watercolor, pen and ink drawings with numbered captions by Erik Blegvad from the story by Hans Christian Andersen, from the December 1991 issue:

"The Ice Maiden" pastel, watercolor, and acrylic painting by Leo and Diane Dillon, from the February 1993 issue:

Old Kris oil on canvas by NC Wyeth, 1925, from the December 1985 issue:

"Stellar Angels" watercolor, tempera, and colored pencils by Tomie dePaola, from the December 1989 issue:

"Dragons and Gargoyles of Princeton" pen and ink, watercolor, colored pencil, and magic marker by Lynne Cherry, from the January 1986 issue:

Banned Books Week Turns 30

 

In honor of the 30th annual Banned Books Week, here are short films based on two of my favorite stories by two of my favorite banned authors.

All Summer in a Day (1982) is based on a short story by Ray Bradbury and aired as part of PBS's phenomenal (and sadly defunct) children's series 'Wonderworks':



...and The Lottery (1969), based on Shirley Jackson's story of the same name and adapted for Encyclopædia Britannica's 'Short Story Showcase':

Part One

Part Two


I recommend reading (or re-reading) both, or choose a favorite from the American Library Association's lists of frequently challenged books or the London Libraries' list of banned books. Happy reading!

I miss my ocean

I'm having a hard time settling in here.

This story is from Orford, Suffolk, near where I was born. I think it's terribly sad.



'Men fishing in the sea caught in their nets a wild man. He was naked and was like a man in all his members, covered with hair and with a long shaggy beard. He eagerly ate whatever was brought to him but if it was raw he pressed it between his hands until all the juice was expelled. He would not talk, even when tortured and hung up by his feet. Brought into church, he showed no signs of reverence or belief. He sought his bed at sunset and always remained there until sunrise.

He was allowed to go into the sea, strongly guarded with three lines of nets, but he dived under the nets and came up again and again. Eventually he came back of his own free will. But later on he escaped and was never seen again.'


(Recorded by Ralph of Coggeshall, a 12th-13th Century Cistercian monk, later abbott, and English chronicler.)

Books and Black Holes

Lincoln had his melancholia, Churchill had his black dog, and I occasionally fall into black holes. Sometimes I can be in one for quite some time before I realize I have to dig myself out. It helps to remember things I like; in the past I have used this as a place to share things that make me happy, but I've gotten out of practice. So, it seems a good time for spring cleaning, both here and in my head.

Books are some of my most favorite things, and I was lucky enough to recently find a copy of the first American edition of Michael Ende's The Neverending Story. I first read it as a teenager, but the copy I borrowed from the library was printed in black ink with no illustrations. My beautiful new (old) copy has text printed in the proper red and green with 26 illustrations by Roswitha Quadflieg illuminating the chapter heads, one for each letter of the alphabet.

Here are some images from the book... more pictures, including Roswitha Quadflieg's full alphabet can be found here.







If you've never read The Neverending Story run out and get a copy; even if it's a paperback in black and white you won't be disappointed. If you're able to read it in the original German then lucky you!

..and if you're still reading this after all this time, or still checking in, hello again.

dancing pigs in charity shops

A few days ago I found the most wonderful book in my local Oxfam about the 1971 ballet film Tales of Beatrix Potter. It contains a script for the film as well as background on the development of the production. My favorite part details the creation of the costumes, which were co-designed by Christine Edzard, who also directed The Children's Midsummer Night's Dream, and artist Rotislav Doboujinsky, who designed and built the stunning animal masks. I love this quote on Doboujinsky's working practice:

"Doboujinsky works at his own pace - and to his own standard of perfection. 'Now and again I have found no good solution to a problem,' he says. 'Then I renounce,' - renounce not compromise. He must almost have renounced Hunca Munca; thirteen times that winter he made her mask and it was not until February 1970 that, with the fourteenth attempt he was satisfied."

The characters were all performed by dancers from the Royal Ballet. Below are pictures of Jeremy Fisher, who has the most fantastic stripy-stockinged legs, Mrs. Tittlemouse and Johnny Town-Mouse, several waltzing mice, the foxy "sandy-whiskered gentleman", Pigling Bland and friends on a picnic, and a group of extra tails.










Construction materials included:

"60 yards of paper for tails
5 lbs pig bristles - half white - prepared solid, product of Poland
Gallons of various glues
Bags and bags of feathers - marabou, duck feathers, swan feathers
12 pairs of artificial hands (hired) on which to fit paws
Marbles: ping-pong balls : sugar basins"

..and a Van de Graaff generator for affixing animal hair to glue-covered masks!

Isn't it delightful?

the forest for the trees

Today I've started making a tiny forest out of twigs, and I'm excited to see how it will turn out.

For inspiration I've been looking at the work of Russian artist Ivan Bilibin. Here are two of his illustrations, published in 1900, of the red rider who brings the sunrise and the black rider who brings the night from the Russian fairytale Vasilisa the Beautiful.

(click for much larger images)


The full story can be read here. Baba Yaga the witch, who flies around in a giant mortar and has a house on chicken feet, makes an appearance. It is well worth reading.

For the last several nights as I've been going to sleep I've found ladybugs on my bedside table. I've been visited by red ones with black spots and black ones with red spots. Even if I let them out the open window they come right back in. I wonder if they'll be back again this evening?


(detail from the Alexander Marshal Insect Watercolors Album, ca. 1600-1680)

noodleheads, nincompoops, mooncalfs, ninnyhammers & fools

"The highest form of bliss is living with a certain degree of folly."
-Erasmus

When I was little one of my favorite books was an edition of The Wise Men of Gotham, retold and illustrated by Malcolm Carrick. The people of Gotham were said to have feigned foolishness to keep King John from staying in their village in the 13th century. The stories recount villagers drowning eels, sending rent away tied to a hare, failing to trap a cuckoo in a hedge and other misadventures.

The book is silly and wonderful and had an incredible smell the way some books do, a bit like a mature cheese. When I was very small I somehow thought this was because one of the tales was about a man rolling his cheeses down a hill in the belief they would take themselves to market. This and other Gotham tales can be read on Project Gutenberg.

Another story about a fool who is not entirely foolish is the Russian fairy tale The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship. It is about a simple young man who wins the hand of the Tsar's daughter with a flying ship and the help of a strange band of travelers. Here is the first part of a 1990 stop motion puppet version by Cosgrove Hall:

A full version of the story can be read here.

Happy April Fool's Day to you!

Anything can happen, child.

I spent a snowy night a few weeks ago driving down from the mountains with my sisters and listening to Shel Silverstein poems on CD. I just found the Shel Silverstein website, which is suitably silly and has some great audio clips of Silverstein reading his poems, making noises and playing music. The excerpt from The Giving Tree accompanied by Silverstein on the harmonica is really lovely.. but then the story did always make me cry when I was little.


"There once was a tree... and she loved a little boy."

Thursday

(illus. by Edward Gorey, 1994)

(my new old 1920s kimono)

We're deep into the post-Christmas lazy days here. Today I'm going to a screening of Jim Henson's fantastic puppet film Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas at the arts center and then to a VIP tour of the Jim Henson exhibition. I got lots of knee socks for Christmas.. I know it sounds boring, but I'm really excited about them.