The 20th Century Book : Its Illustration & Design

Herbert Press, London, second edition, 1984. Cloth, large 4to, 291 x 216 mm,. 271 pp, over 460 illustrations (36 in colour). From the blurb: "In the first part of the book the author describes the conflict of ideas in book design since the 1880s, firstly between the Art Nouveau movement and the followers of William Morris and then in the 1920s between the work of the Bauhaus as the protagonists of Die Neue Typographie in Germany and the supporters of the renaissance of a classical style in printing in England and the United States. The greater part of the book is taken up with book illustration, beginning with the influence of French editions de luxe on American and British illustrated books, showing the work of such artists as Bonnard, Segonzac, Dufy and Leger. A chapter on German Expressionism introduces the work of Slevogt, Kokoschka, Georg Grosz and Paul Klee, together with the Surrealist book illustrations of Max Ernst and his followers. A chapter on English and American traditions in illustration including the work of such artists as Frederic Remington, Howard Pyle, William Nicholson and Edward Ardizzone is followed by a comparison of the wood engraving revival in France and England. The chapters on illustration conclude with over 60 pages of children's books ranging from the early illustrators of such classics as Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy or the works of G. A. Henty to contemporary illustration by such artists as Maurice Sendak, Edmund Gorey or Ralph Steadman. After a final chapter tracing the development of modern paperback books and their covers, The 20th Century Book closes with some observations on the role of the illustrator-author-designer and the place of the cartoon and the comic strip in the books of the future. Fine in Very Good dustwrapper.