Several years ago, I was absolutely mesmerized by a show at the Dahesh Museum of Art. It was called Stories to Tell: Masterworks from the Kelly Collection of American Illustration. One of the reasons I was so enchanted was that some of the works were magazine illustrations, especially from the days when magazines published the work of many women writers. But even the advertisements from this period were something to sing about. And the covers of magazines like Redbook, Cosmopolitian, and Saturday Evening Post.
There is one illustrator whose work I am sure you will all recognize: Jessie Wilcox Smith. Aside from many familiar books, she produced nearly two hundred covers for Good Housekeeping magazine. During my days at the Hearst Corporation (the publisher of Good House, and Victoria as well) I saw many of her works. We always received the famous popover recipe of the Good House dining room with a Jessie Wilcox Smith illustration. One of my personal favorites is a mother buttoning a little girl's coat. But I also love "Mother's Morning" (1902) for Scribner's Magazine.
Photography replaced these marvelous illustrations; and the stories were fewer and fewer as magazines changed with changing times. But I am reminded of Stories to Tell because a friend just brought me back a catalog from Persephone Books, after visiting the shop in London and sending me these pictures.This wonderful company has reproduced some of the charming fiction of the past and done it with the taste and sensitivity of the period. Some of the old illustrations accompany the tales like Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, that was also a recent motion picture. I immediately ordered Good Food on the Aga, 1933, by Ambrose Heath for a friend who has a love-hate relationship with a newly installed Aga that was indeed a saga.
Persephone Books reprints neglected writings from the early to mid-twentieth century with patterned end papers that are appropriate to the time period. The company maintains a wonderful web site and you can purchase the books online, paying of course the postage from Great Britain. (Perhaps one can find their books here in the U.S.?)
Bravo and a tip of the hat to Persephone--seems like old times--"dinner dates and flowers."
Oh, how lovely, I do remember these illustrations as a little girl growing up. Thank you for sharing, I will check out their website.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful bookstore. The pink wrapped books are saying "buy me". I can almost smell that wonderful fragrance of books.
ReplyDeleteI just received a special book in the mail, "My First Best Friend". I can't wait to read it, but I am sending a second copy on to my first best friend. We haven't seen each other in 30 years, but she will always be my first best friend.
Hello Nancy: I love Jessie Wilcox Smith's illustrations. They are very charming. Very nice post today. Thanks for sharing. Sincerely, Susan from writingstraightfromtheheart.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks for such a marvelous post, Nancy! Firstly, Jessie W-S is a treasure. I think her portrait of a wee girl, safe and warm in cozy window seat while a blustery, snowy landscape appears outside, is one of my favorite Victoria “Chimes” images. Her tender portraits of children are truly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, one can occasionally find Persephone Books at amazon.com, alibris.com, or half.com, but it’s the luck of the draw. I don’t know of any US-based bookstore that imports them, and when I inquired at Persephone (last year, when I first gleefully discovered them), I was shocked at the price of postage. It’s not their fault, but it can run into $20 and more for shipping. Scout the libraries, public and university/college, too, for other versions of the same stories. I found The Making of a Marchioness at my local library. Persephone has a marvelous website and does distribute their catalogs, which are blistering with informative bits. And, when they mail one to you, they often include a bookmark that’s designed to mimic one of their vintage textile endpapers. I love the candid snaps your correspondent shared with you, Nancy. They are charming. You can almost smell the hyacinths! Which reminds me of my favorite Crabtree & Evelyn fragrance (now sadly discontinued) “Spring Rain”. (By the way, I think, if you lean ever-so-slightly to the east, you can actually see Spring coming!)
Happy March, Karen Marline
@Marilyn - My hope in writing this book is that it just might inspire reunions of one sort or another. Using the book to connect with a friend not seen for 30 years--it warms my heart as much as the Harney tea I am drinking. Do let me know how the book affects both of you? What memories do the stories of the women in the book make more vivid for you? You have made my day. NL
ReplyDeleteNancy, Lovely post. I love Jesse Wilcox Smith - her rooms look like my grandmother's. Also, I've purchased a few Persephone books at Barne's and Noble. I agree their catalog is really something.
ReplyDeleteDonna
First you have me on the hunt for Paris tea, then friends to share My First Best Friend with, and now Persephone books and pictures of that lovely bookstore. Your posts have drawn me out of the winter malaise I have been experiencing and on the hunt for at least a Jesse Wilcox Smith print. Sigh. I'll just go have a cup of tea and set myself to dreaming of the stories that lie between those lovely endpapers.
ReplyDeleteOh I am excited today,because the bookstore called, where I order new & Used books from- "My first Best Friend" is in., & another one that is out of print, that I have been looking for in like new condition,hardcover-- by the "Editors of Victoria- called"Dear Friends"-{an address book.}-LOl I held out to get this particular address book ,will finally be organized & have it on my Antique Secretary desk that I lovingly restored,with the much needed new laptop I got for Xmas- Guess what is on the three shelves behind the glass on the top?-- All of the smaller sized books,{that fit}-by "The Editors of Victoria"!---Oh, life is good!!--Love,Valery
ReplyDeleteWhoops!Nancy in my excitement about the book being in-I should have posted about it on the prior thread-topic.--
ReplyDeleteAnyway- speaking of "Good Housekeeping",magazine,I have a series of {only six so far}-magazines I cherish that are VERY Rare & hard to find-&{valuable}- & were published in Australia called "CAMEO".They are no longer in print- but the very first one."Good Housekeeping Cameo Premiere"- 1987 is stunningly gorgeous with many of the same or similar articles in as the "Victoria Premiere 1987" issue, and also has a similar gorgeous cover. I know that there was only just one of the Cameos published in 1987-then the publication changed to just- "Australian Cameo,A return to Romance"- by a different publisher in 1994.-They are stunning beautiful magazines, so much like Victoria, only Australian places etc. The layout is so much like Victoria, there just has to be a connection, at least,initially-?
If you are aware of this publicaton- please, will you tell all about it? How it came to be, and how many were actually published ,etc.I have a total of six of them, and would love to hear the story about these- & find more of them to read/ collect.--I do have pictures of mine-{& also a Premiere Cameo 1987 one of a Dear Friend's}-- but do not know how to post them on here...---Looking so forward to hear from you about these!--renolady123@charter.net & will send pictures of them for you to see,unless there is a way to post them on here? Love,Valery
I am so loving all these conversations and agree with Penny that you are keeping this winter inspiring just keeping up with you.
ReplyDeleteI live in a small town and have to go to a city to get to Barnes and Noble and Borders. Next on my agenda is to find your new book --I did go to the site you mentioned in your last journal. I would not have had the pleasure of reading Leslie Caron's wonderful book if you had not guided me.
I also love the wonderful illustrations from the past and have a small collection of vintage magazines. Jessie Willcox Smith was always a favorite so when I found a book (in one of those almost extinct small bookstores) called Jessie Willcox Smith by S. Michael Schnessed, published by Thomas Y. Crowell I had to buy it. I was wondering if you had come across it. It not only has so many of her illustrations full page, some in color and others in black and white, but an extensive biography. I love to enjoy it just to get "my fix" with absorbing lovely children's illustrations, again with my cup of tea. One favorite is the little girl lying in a hamock cuddling with her doll. This particular one is the cover for a July, 1929 Good Housekeeping. This book is such a treasure.
One paragraph, "No discussion of Jessie Wilcox Smith would be complete without due credit to that cornerstone of American illustration and her primary influence, Howard Pyle. The illustrators whose careers were altered or launched by his teachings are numerous. In addition to the Cogslea women, Pyle's students included Maxfield Parrish, N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Alice Barber Stephens, Thorton Oakley and others -- a vertiable Who's Who of American illustrators."
I am always looking to his book for references and have enjoyed it so much. I have long said that heaven has to have an endless library because there is no way I can ever read all I wish. Thanks again, Nancy! Now I have to go find a "vintage" March Victoria to curl up with. Jean
Oh, it's wonderful to hear from you again. You know, you had a huge influence on my life growing up as a teenager in the '80s. Recently, I've been going through and rereading my old Victorias (probably because I just moved and am unpacking boxes still). As I just started my blog, I've also been thinking of you. You were a wonderful example of discerning beauty, refreshment and good ideas.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy that I have a chance to actually say thank you very, very much.
Love, Katy Noelle
@Valery - I do remember seeing this magazine at the time, and I do believe it was inspired by the publication of VICTORIA. There were several such attempts here as well. I recall Traditions done by the staff at Woman's Day. And of course, the most important magazine we seem to have inspired is Martha Stewart Living. I believe Martha herself mentioned our influence. As always, Martha did it her way and pretty nicely, too, I might add. I can't help think that "Good Things" was akin to "Favorite Things." What do they say about the sincerest form of flattery? And sometimes, the time is just right for a certain sensibility. I always say that if Darwin and Wallace could come up with their theories on opposite sides of the Atlantic, magazine editors might just be on the same wave length at the same time. I was heir to the work of some marvelous editorial ideas--like the promotion of women writers. Mademoiselle did a wonderful job with this for many years. Our Kitty Ross and Cathie Calvert came from that magazine. And Joanne Barwick at House Beautiful trained not only our Claire Whitcomb, Trish Foley, and Kim Freeman--but Martha herself! We should all be proud of the shoulders we stand on.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nancy!--While no other magazine means as much to me at all as the Victoria that you published-- The Cameos are really beautiful reading for me-. While they don't have quite the same familiar
ReplyDelete"heart"to them as your Victoria, they really do come close,esp. for the Aussie readers-{I can see by the readers comments}that they loved & cherished them too.-for me I love the way I can see all of these gorgeous Australian places in them,{new for me}- and also I love the name "Cameo" , with the cherub as their logo- {like the Rose logo is for Victoria}-they offer books under the Cameo name and merchandise for sale in them too, much like the Victoria I love,only it is another country's. It is really interesting to read what the Australians live like,& from reading it , they know "beautifulness/lovliness"-lol too.
I have read and seen the Martha Stewart living and the attempted "tradtions" -- none compare to your victoria- but this "Cameo" one really does have a lot of merit-- I am a collector , & when I found out about these Cameos , well if I would be in Australia- I would be hooked on them as well, if they were still in publication...I'm just so glad I finally had the courage to ask you about them on here--
Now, if I could just find one of those gorgeous wood Victoria Rose"-logo pendelum clocks that were advertised for sale in your Victoria-- I would be just thrilled!!-lol- {the collector in me is finding this to be a huge challenge}-Do you have one of them for yourself? I collect pretty ,decorative & Antique clocks too, and the Victoria logo one would for sure be my very favorite!{just like Victoria magazine is}--Love,Valery-
I just wrote a little about Persephone books on my blog today as someone wanted to know if any D. E. Stevenson books are still in print. One can get their Miss Buncle's Book through Amazon. Many of their books are available on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading both Elizabeth Goudge and D. E. Stevenson recently. I also purchased (used at Amazon) Lark Rise to Candleford after a friend recommended it (and I remember reading about it on Victoria). :)
I love the artwork of Jessie Wilcox Smith, and I also adore the artwork of Eloise Wilkin. Those beautiful cherub-faced children tug at my heartstrings every time. I've always been drawn to the artwork in children's books. A more current-day artist whose work I adore is Alexandra Day. Her "Good Dog, Carl" books are among my very favorites, for their beautiful artwork along with good doses of humor.
ReplyDeleteChristi
Christi, I have been a fan of Eloise Wilkin's books for a long time. I have collected most of her books and now my grandsons are enjoying them too. She had a series of Vogue dolls called Baby Dear created from her sweet illustrations. I am fortunate to have the doll Baby Dear Welcome Home. I am drawn to children's books and they make great gifts to my young friends. They have learned they never seem to leave our home without a book under their arms. Jean
ReplyDeleteWell, this is a coincidence. My husband was heading to London a couple of weeks ago and since I decided not to join him on this particular trip, I sent him with my shopping list that, aside from more Cath Kidston, originally included some Persephone Books. I decided to check on Amazon first to see if any were available and I was able to order "Mariana" by Monica Dickens and "The Making of a Marchioness" by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I finished "Marchioness" last week and am now reading "Mariana". These are the same editions sold in the UK with beautiful cover art and end papers. Amazon actually has quite a few titles available.
ReplyDeleteI am so excited to see the photos of the actual shop on your blog!
Sadly, I have acquaintances who are no longer buying books but using Kindles instead. I'll take the Persephones!
Rita
Jean, how lovely that you give those little treasures to your young friends. And I never knew there were dolls by Eloise W. I will definitely have to look for those.
ReplyDeleteChristi