New Pop-Up Books in the Clarke

by Frank Boles 

The Lucile Clarke Children’s Library, a part of the Clarke Historical Library, has a distinguished collection of children’s books. That collection was recently enriched by the addition of over 600 pop-up books from the library of Dr. Francis Molson. The books were collected by Dr. Molson and his late wife, Mary Lois. The volumes offer a dazzling insight into what is one of the most colorful and entertaining corners of the printing industry. A few illustrations from the books we acquired accompany this post.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

The Molson collection of movable books leans towards toward post-world War II publications. It captures in exquisite limited editions the work of some of the era’s leading paper engineers, such as Robert Sabuda. It also represents comprehensive collections of volumes on subjects of special interest to Dr. Molson, such as the Wizard of Oz and Sleeping Beauty. Francis sought Wizard of Oz pop-up books to complement the Clarke’s existing Wizard of Oz printed volumes collection. As for Sleeping Beauty, when as a young person he saw the 1959 Disney movie, it “scared the bejeebers” out of him. As portrayed by the Disney animators, the evil fairy Maleficent was, well pretty darn scary! Some images just stay with you and lead you to want to learn more about them.

Asterix on the Warpath, Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

Although most pop-up books today are usually associated with children’s books, that perception is not completely true. There are many pop-up books which target an adult market. For example, the television series Game of Thrones has a pop-up book found in the Molson collection. This adult-oriented subset of the market has a much longer history than the one associated with children’s themes. The first movable books, the more formal name for pop-ups since the earliest versions did not “pop-up,” appeared in the 13^th century.

The first movable books were created to determine the date of Easter. Easter, the great feast of Christendom, does not occur on the same Sunday each year. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday that follows the first full moon after the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere (with some fiddling around the edges we needn’t get into here). Church leaders printed tables for the clergy to use that told them what Sunday to celebrate Easter, but local clergy found the tables hard to read. In the 13^th century, publishers discovered a simpler way to present the same information: use a revolving wheel in the center of a page of text. When a clergy member placed the wheel in the proper location, the rest was easy!

Bridscapes: A Pop-Up Celebration of Bird Songs in Stereo Sound, 
Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

Soon enough, “volvelles,” as the innovation was named, showed up in several other applications, such as astronomical tables, and eventually - as a trope of untold spy novels and occasionally as a tool of real spies - a way to decipher encoded messages. Flaps, which could be lifted to reveal what lay underneath, came next. They first appeared in anatomy textbooks. Using them, a student could lift a flap of paper representing the skin to see what lay underneath.

In the nineteenth century, publishers began to print movable books for children. The books first appeared in London, whereby 1860 several publishers marketed movable children’s books. In the late nineteenth century, German published came to dominate the field. German publishers were the undisputed masters of emerging forms of color reproduction. With the onset of World War I, pop-up books, now largely printed in Germany, all but disappeared in England and the United States.

Brava Sterega Nona! A Heartwarming Pop-Up Book, 
Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

The first movable books printed in the United States appeared in the 1880s. But they were always a publisher’s sideline. In the early years of the twentieth century, some manufacturers printed pop-up books as advertising.  For example, in 1909, Kellogg’s published Kellogg’s Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures, to help sell cereal. But movable books for children did not become serious business in the United States until the 1930s.

Desperate to try anything to increase book sales during the Great Depression, publishers turned to movable books. Classic fairy tales and books from the Walt Disney Studios led the way. Unlike their European predecessors, which often displayed the craftsmanship associated with a finely printed volume, these movable books were made with less expense, and were designed to sell to a mass market. By the 1950s, movable books were a recognized part of the American children’s book market.

Hokusai Pop-Ups, Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

If movable books were big sellers, they spent much of the 1960s and 1970s trying to gain literary respect. The term “paper engineer” was coined in the 1960s to describe the skills needed to make a pop-up book literally pop-up. “Serious” persons, however, continued to label movable books a novelty – dismissing them as “toy books” not worthy of their attention. That perception changed in 1980 when the British Library Association gave its most prestigious award for a children’s publication, the Kate Greenaway Medal, to Jan Pieńkowski’s Haunted House, which was engineered by Tor Lokvig.

The Jungle Book: A Pop-Up Adventure,
Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

“Let yourself in,” says the notice on the front door of Haunted House. Once inside, a reader opens other doors to find disgusting things, things that cause shivers as eyes blink or spiders creep, or things that make a reader jump as monsters burst from the page. Described as “the house of petrifying pop-ups” by the Greenaway Awards Committee, the book has sold over one million copies. Haunted House’s flourishing sales and award-winning status ensured the future of the pop-up book both as a way to make a dollar and as a serious literary genre.

The Chronicles of Narnia, Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

Books like Haunted House, however, have a distinct downside from a library’s administrator’s viewpoint. Student employees asked to check in the Molson books were quickly noticed to be working at less than their usual pace – way less. We had a problem – the books were so interesting the students kept opening them up to see what would happen. I suppose a proper library manager would have initiated a time-management study and using this empirical data imposed strict hourly processing quotas. But the problem was the full-time staff, and I, kept stopping to see the latest treasure the students had unearthed, encouraging their bad behavior.  

Snowflakes: A Pop-Up Book, Cover (Left) and Page Pop-Up (Right).

The only solution to everyone’s fascination with the Molson books was to embrace it and make lemonade from lemons. The students’ favorite books from the Molson collection illustrate this blog. I hope you enjoy them as much as they do. I also hope you will join us during the spring semester 2020 when we will share our collective enthusiasm for movable books through an exhibit in the Clarke Historical Library.

You’re going to love it. Trust our student employees on this one.

175th Anniversary of a Christmas Classic

By Bryan Whitledge

On December 19, 1843, the arguably most-beloved of Christmas stories was first offered to the public. Despite disputes and differences of opinion about the publication of the book, Charles Dickens and his publisher worked up until the very end to ensure that A Christmas Carol would be on the shelves ahead of the Christmas holiday. Dickens’ insistence on the highest-quality product possible created a great deal of work for the publishers. But most agree that all of the work to bring the novel to market prior to Christmas was a great idea - the entire run of 6,000 copies sold out on the first day! Before the end of that year – less than two weeks – Chapman and Hall, the publisher, produced a second and third edition of the text.

From the start, the book was a critical and popular success. In the United States, the story became Dickens’ most popular, with over two million volumes sold in the one hundred years following the initial release. Countless adaptations for radio, stage, television, and cinema have been produced. And our language has been forever changed – Bah! Humbug is a curmudgeonly way of dismissing anything, nobody ever wants to be called a scrooge, and merry is the preferred adjective for a Christmas greeting.

At the Clarke, you can find various editions of A Christmas Carol spanning 163 years -- from an 1843 first edition to a 2006 edition illustrated by award-winning Irish artist P.J. Lynch (pictured at right). Lynch is not the only award-winning artist to have added his or her graphical interpretation to the story. Lisbeth Zwerger and Roberto Innocenti (pictured at bottom), who have been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award from the International Board on Book for Young People, have illustrated editions of A Christmas Carol. The beautifully-illustrated British and American editions of famed artist Arthur Rackham are among the most attractive copies of the book that one can find. And there are pop-up versions of the story from the late-twentieth century among the 39 different editions of Dickens’ classic yuletide story in the Clarke's holdings (pictured at bottom).

A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Arthur Rackham

The first edition, one of the 6,000 copies released 175 years ago, is a special item found in the Clarke. The only book for which Dickens sprung for color illustrations, the famous red and blue title page and frontispiece of Mr. Fezziwig’s Ball are a delightful touch for a book published in 1843 (pictured at top). It is a wonder to think that this little book was part of a frenzy in England matching that of a new smartphone release in San Francisco today. One presumes that this book was a coveted acquisition when it was purchased on December 19, 1843. All these years later, anyone can have the same experience of opening the pages of this treasured story and reflecting on Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from a scrooge to a wisher of Merry Christmases.

"Marley's Ghost" from the 1843 first edition

 

A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger

A Christmas Carol, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti

Pop-up editions of A Christmas Carol

Happy Birthday, Royal Alice!

by Bryan Whitledge

We are almost too late for a very important date! November 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the release of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A favorite of children and adults alike since its release, the first 2,000 copies released back in November 1865 quickly sold out. Today, a first edition is considered a must-have for children's book collectors and the Clarke is fortunate to have one those 2,000 copies.

While all first edition copies of Alice are special, some have added significance. One can find copies of Alice owned by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll was his pen name) in the Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists at Princeton University. A copy that belonged to Alice Liddell, the namesake for the story, can be found as part of the Harcourt Armory Collection of the works of Lewis Carroll at Harvard University. At the Clarke, our copy also has added significance: it is the copy that was presented to the eight-year-old daughter of British Queen Victoria, Beatrice.

The copy, in presentation white vellum and containing the bookplate of Princess Beatrice, is part of the Lucile Clarke Memorial Children's Library. The Royal Alice, as it is affectionately called, is a favorite of library visitors of all ages. On the 150th anniversary of the release of one of the most beloved stories of all time, we think there is no better way to celebrate than to share this historically significant copy of Alice.

Where the Wild Things Are: From Turning a Page to a Motion Picture

by Ryan Rooney

Read to children across the world, turned into movies, and regarded as one of the best children’s books ever written, here at the Clarke we are very fortunate to have a signed first edition, second issue copy of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963). With the Caldecott Medal seal on the front and Sendak's signature on the title page, the book is a part of our children's literature collection that truly stands out as unique.

New Rackham Book Added to the Library

by Frank Boles

The Clarke Library recently added to the Lucile Clarke Memorial Children’s Library a first edition of Two Old Ladies, Two Foolish Fairies and a Tom Cat, illustrated by Arthur Rackham and published in London in 1897.

"Go! Be a stray cat!"

Arthur Rackham is among the most famous illustrators to work with children’s books. In 2005, the Library made a major acquisition of over 100 Rackham illustrated volumes, creating one of the major Rackham collections in the United States. There are very few books illustrated by Rackham that are not already found in some form in the collection, but Two Old Ladies was one of the books we were missing. It was published in a relatively small press run in the years before Rackham became famous. Thus today it is a hard to find title. We were thrilled to be able to add it to the collection.

Arthur Rackham was born in 1867. Although he early on showed great talent as an artist, his father, who was a practical man, insisted that the boy learn a trade. Arthur eventually became a clerk at an insurance firm, but he was frequently bored and continued to take art lessons. In 1892, he resigned his clerkship to illustrate books. His first published work appeared in 1893. For the next decade he worked regularly, but relatively anonymously, with a reputation known mainly to people “inside the trade.”

A lavishly printed edition of Rip Van Winkle, illustrated by Rackham, proved his “breakthrough” book. The 1905 publication gave Rackham a public presence. In 1906, he secured his position with the public through the illustrations he created for Peter Pan in Kensington Garden. After these two books, Rackham’s name on a volume as the illustrator was enough to sell a book. Rackham remained active as an illustrator until his death in 1939. The last book Rackham illustrated, The Wind and the Willows, was published posthumously in 1940.

The Lucile Clarke Memorial Children’s Library was founded within the Clarke Library in 1971 by Dr. Norman Clarke, Sr., in memory of his deceased wife.