I am a bit of book lover. I love everything about them—the stories they tell, their covers, fonts, layouts etc. But one thing that stands out for me and excites me the most in a book are the illustrations.
The importance of illustrations
I have collected a lot of natural history books, particularly old zoology books, from the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the days before photographic printing these books used etchings to illustrate the text. And they are delightful.
Illustrations were central to news magazines and then satirical magazines such as Punch. Political cartoons evolved from the illustrations. The New Yorker magazine continues in the same way.
Children’s book illustrators
The illustrations we are all most familiar with are those from children’s books. When we read A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh we see him as illustrated by E.H. Shepherd (please not the yellow Disney version); and when we see Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland, the Jabberwocky, the Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit we see the versions drawn by John Tenniel. There is only one way to view the world of Roald Dahl and that is through the illustrations of Quentin Blake. Beatrix Potter created a world populated by animals with her beautiful water colour illustrations.
The US has also produced its own illustrated children’s stories including The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel), Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, and the Busytown series by Richard Scarry.
And we have our Australian classics: Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs, The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay; and Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall (all illustrated by their authors).
Illuminating manuscripts
When the monks scribed the first bible manuscripts they included shiny gold and silver leaf in the elaborate lettering. And thus these early books are known as illuminated manuscripts. Illuminate meant to light up from the Latin “luminis”. It came into English in the 15th and 16th centuries, figuratively meaning spiritual enlightenment and literally the act of lighting.
Illustration
Illustration has a parallel and similar meaning. It comes directly from Latin “illustrationem” meaning a vivid representation (in writing), literally, an enlightening. Its root was “illustrare” to light up or to make light. It came into English in the 15th and 16th centuries meaning to make clear, disclose, adorn or explain. The sense of providing pictures to explain or decorate follows on in the 17th century.
Shining the light on illustrators
Can you imagine a world without Peter Rabbit or Alice in Wonderland? The illustrations that brought these characters to life indeed shone a light into our culture, yet we take their creation for granted.
Is it time to acknowledge that the Cat in the Hat is more relevant than Hamlet; Toad of Toad Hall is funnier than Falstaff; and Winnie the Pooh has provided stronger moral guidance than St Thomas Aquinas? Or am I being unenlightened.