Children's Fiction 1900-1950

Rating:
Summary: a treat for all booklovers
Review: What a wonderfully produced book! It beatifully captures the essence of an era through its generous use of evocative illustrations of children's books dating from the first half of the twentieth century. The authors cover British writers primarily, but there is a good representation from the States, Canada and Australia.
The book is organized by decades, which gives the reader the chance to see more clearly how each particular period panned out: a refreshing change from the unimaginative alphabetical strategy usually favoured in such tomes.
Each featured writer is given an introductory essay. A complete bibliography for the decade is appended. This is fascinating. One can easily compare the output of famous writers (Enid Blyton - manic; Arthur Ransome - considered). The content of the essays is informative and ungushy. The authors also have a nice line in dry wit - Beatrix Potter's "Tale of Pigling Bland" is described as "a crackling good tail" for instance.
The pictures are the stars, however. Largely of highly rare dust jackets, they are enough to make any collector both ecstatic and jealous. For once it is probably not an exaggeration to talk about "the only copy in existance". The jacket of "Children's Fiction" is itself a work of art. Ultra scarce jacketed copies of books by Milne, Blyton, Henty, Brazil, Brent-Dyer, Crompton, Ransome and WE Johns lie, as if scattered, before a blue background.
I suspect that the comparatively high retail price is the only thing that has stopped this book reaching a wide audience. If only Ashgate (or another publisher)could reissue it in paperback (perhaps without the bibliographies and with more colour) then this would surely be a widely heralded addition to the ever increasing nostalgia genre. As it is, I recommend it to those thousands who, like me, love this era and collect children's books. You will not regret the purchase.