These beautiful illustrations appeared
in the November 28, 1908 Collier's Weekly monthly fiction issue.
I've worked with the images, and their value added content is copyrighted.
They may be copied for educational purposes only,
with a source link to this article at Art of Narrative.
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Clara Elsene Peck Heading The Adventures of Melissa ~ 1908 A Short Story by Rudyard Kipling Clover to an over-tired bee
is as soothing as plain knitting...
Published in Collier's Weekly |
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Clara Elsene Peck The Adventures of Melissa ~ 1908 A Short Story by Rudyard Kipling Clover to an over-tired bee is as soothing as plain knitting... Published in Collier's Weekly |
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Clara Elsene Peck The Adventures of Melissa ~ 1908 A Short Story by Rudyard Kipling These things are written in the Book of Queens, which is laid up in the hollow of the Great Ash- Ydrasil Published in Collier's Weekly |
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Clara Elsene Peck
Decoration
The Adventures of Melissa ~ 1908
A Short Story by Rudyard Kipling
Published in Collier's Weekly
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Clara Elsene Peck The Adventures of Melissa ~ 1908 A Short Story by Rudyard Kipling The Day of the Light and the Smoke and the Voice Behind the Veil Published in Collier's Weekly |
These illustrations may not be a perfect match to the reactionary, allegorical nature of Kipling's story, written as a response to his fear of socialism, noted at the time of its publication, but they are exciting in their composition and line, reminiscent of the accomplished work of Arthur Rackham.
You may think I see parallels to Arthur Rackham in every artist, but it is because I am drawn to detailed illustration, especially with wonderful surprise and energy, and convincing characterization. I love the little fairy faces (well, bees, but they look like fairies and gnomes to me). You may notice in the second illustration that a Rackham-like face appears, in fact two of them, peering over the open notebook.
You can learn more about Clare Elsene Peck (1883-1968) here and here. You can see more of her illustrations from 1905 and 1907 here. I love her work and though I had seen a bit of it before, including her typography, after recent research I have a greater appreciation, especially after by pure chance discovering the illustrations presented here which are not widely known.
Kipling's story and Peck's raw images from the November 28, 1908 issue of Collier's are in the public domain. The first page of the short story, The Adventures of Melissa, is copied below from the Internet Archive. Click into the link if you'd like to see more.
Enjoy!
Text and Value Added Images © 2015 Art of Narrative
