Wednesday, December 08, 2010

A Children's Book Author in my Family (1924)

Teddy Bear by Louis Glackens
The Sandman by Louis Glackens

"Tell 'Em Again Tales" (shown above) is the only picture book that my grandmother's great aunt, Marguerite Day, wrote. I was reminded of it today when someone on flickr (finsbry) posted an example of the illustrator Louis Glackens' work. I have one fragile copy at home. (I just saw another copy online at Aleph-Bet Books. )
I scanned a couple of loose pages: "The Sandman" and "Teddy Bear". The inscription reads "With Love From Aunt Marguerite Day, Oct. 16th, 1924". It's an oversize book and I don't want to scan anymore of it for fear all of the pages will come out. The writing is in the form of 16 poems and there are nice borders with B & W cartoon characters and some B & W pen & ink (wash) full page illustrations as well as watercolors like those shown above. Here is an example of the writing style:
The Sandman
The sandman comes
From Winky Blink town,
On a lazy white horse
He rides up and down.
He says, "Precious darlings,
With eyes full of sand,
Come ride away, off
Into Dreamland."

Now Winkety-Wink
And Blinkety Blink
Got up on their horse
Too tired to think;
In little pajamas
And eyes full of sand
They rode away, off
Into Dreamland.
Louis M. Glackens (1866- 1933) was an American illustrator, cartoonist and animator. He was the brother of the more famous William Glackens (Ashcan School painter and illustrator). Louis worked for "Puck" and was an early animating pioneer. Maybe I should add something to his wikipedia page which doesn't have much info! I seem to remember my grandmother reading these poems to us when I was little. Especially the one about the sandman!

1 comment:

liza said...

what an amazing treasure to have. Beautiful images and part of your family tree.