MORE PREFABULOUS ANIMILES.

UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.NFINE/VG+.No owner inscrptn, and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,clean,colour pictorial atwork by Edward Ardizzone illustrated upper wrap; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners.Couple of small closed tears towards top edges by head of spine/backstrip and other light nicks along top+bottom edges.Spine/backstrip lightly sunned/faded - as usual/ normal,with a colour coded(?) gummed, 1" wide paper strip towards foot of same,partially obscuring end of Ardizzone's name and part of printer's device.Clean,publisher's original green cloth boards with bright,crisp,blocked gilt letters. Rear bard has a production fault in as much as a diagonal crease and wrinkling to pastedown and the cloth, towards the top edge, with bright,clean,plain white endpapers.Top edge slightly aged/ toned,fore-edge brighter with minimal spotting/foxing to edge of rear pages; contents bright,tight and generally clean.UK,slim 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,1-51pp [paginated], includes 11 poems with profuse b/w line illus by Ardizzone throughout the text and the book; plus [unpaginated] half-title,b/w line illustrated title page,a dedication,contents list/table,and un-numbered last 5pps.

Prefabulous Animiles are unique James Reeves creations,at once ludicrous and lovable,incredible and insane.His poems about them have been widely hailed,read aloud,learned by heart, imitated, anthologised and set to music.The Osc,the forty-legged Snyke,the Amperzand,the Blether and the rest,first emerged from their strange habitats nearly twenty years ago,and have been in continuous demand ever since.And no wonder! Only last year (then 1975) Margery Fisher (in The Sunday Times) referred to 'those splendid Prefabulous Animiles who rejoice in some of the best made-up names that ever delighted children'. What less could Reeves and Ardizzone do,in the interests of science as well as art and poetry,than to delve once more into the archives of pre-historic biology and bring forth,in 'More Prefabulous Animiles',a new,intriguing and sometimes disquieting batch of these strange creatures? Once again verbal dexterity and humour are matched by the invention and ingenuity of the ideal artist. Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone,1900-1979,worked as Edward Ardizzone.Born in Haiphong,China,the son of an employee of the Eastern Telegraph Company,the eldest of five children.He lived in the Far East until he was five and then moved with his family to England. Ardizzone lived in Ipswich until he was 14,'and it was here',he wrote, 'that I learnt to know and love the little coastal steamers that I have drawn so often in the TIM books.' He attended evening classes in life drawing given by Bernard Meninsky at Westminster School of Art,while employed as a statistical clerk in London (1916-26).He worked freelance as an illustrator from 1926,achieving widespread recognition with his first children's book 'Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain (1936) the first of the famous TIM books.Served in the Royal Artillery (1939-40);Official War Artist (1940-45), noted for his war diaries. Taught illustration at Camberwell School of Art (1948-52). Worked for UNESCO in India (1952-53).Part-time tutor at the Royal College of Art School of Etching (1953-61). Ardizzone worked in watercolour,pen and ink,pencil and lithograph as a painter,printmaker,greetings card designer and illustrator of over 170 books,many of them his own.He was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal (1956) for 'Tim All Alone' and the Carnegie Medal (1955) and Hans Christian Andersen Medal (1956) with 'The Little Bookroom'.He particularly enjoyed illustrating poetry.He worked mainly from memory,early developing a freely drawn and unmistakable style that changed very little during the course of his long career.He acknowledged the influence of Bernard Meninsky on his work,and also the 19thC draughtsmen Daumier,Dore and Caldecott.His brother-in-law Gabriel White considered 'perhaps no artist since Randolph Caldecott has captured so easily the qualities essential in successful illustration for a child.Ardizzone's are bold and clear and tell the tale in the simplest lines and colours.Ardizzone was awarded the CBE (UK honour) in 1971.In 1973,a retrospective of his work was held at the V & A Museum in London.
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