Raymond Sheppard and Round the Year Stories: Spring

ROUND THE YEAR: SPRING BY MARIBEL  EDWIN

Dustjacket

BACKGROUND


Maribel Edwin appears to have written many books on nature in fictional form for children from the 1920s to the 1960s. Brian and the Wood-Folk. [A nature story for children.] appears to be published by Dent & Sons, 1924 and the last I can find is Bilberry Summer illustrated by Victor Ambrus, published by Collins, in 1965.

The Bookman (December 1933, pp. 232) reviewed her Wild Life Stories and commented: "Maribel Edwin is the pen-name of the daughter of the late Sir Arthur Thomson, and something of his mantle has certainly fallen upon her." and in the flyleaf for the 1950 compilation of all four seasons it states: "Mrs Maribel Edwin, daughter of the late Professor Arthur Thomson of Aberdeen"

If I have the right one - and I think I do - the Who's Who tells us:

THOMSON, Sir (John) Arthur Kt, 1930; MA, Hon. LLD (Edinburgh, McGill, California, and Aberdeen) Born East Lothian, 8 July 1861; m 1889; three s one d ; died 12 Feb. 1933 lately Regius Prof. of Natural History, Aberdeen University, 1899–1930 

‘THOMSON, Sir (John) Arthur’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U218127, accessed 7 April 2013]

and the Times tells us:

He was happily married and had three sons, including Dr. A. L. Thomson, assistant secretary to the Medical Research Council, and Dr. D. L. Thomson, associate professor of biochemistry at McGill, and one daughter

"Sir J. Arthur Thomson." Times [London, England] 13 Feb. 1933: 8. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 7 Apr. 2013.

Poor Maribel, we don't even know her name! But other than that I can't find much about her. I have put together a crude listing of her writings below for anyone wanting to research her further

What's Sheppard's connection? He drew four colour plates and thirteen  black and white drawings

Round the Year: Spring, Frontispiece: lapwing flies to nest.

Round the Year: Spring,p36b Swan flies from nest.

Round the Year: Spring,p100b Coot with chicks following.

Round the Year: Spring,p 84b Fox pins down partridge.

Round the Year: Spring,p15 Boys lifts lapwing

Round the Year: Spring,p21 Hedgehog and saucer

Round the Year: Spring,p29 Willow-Warbler feeding chicks in nest

Round the Year: Spring,p35 Mute swan and three cygnets

Round the Year: Spring,p 43 Fieldmice and babies

Round the Year: Spring,p51Woodcock with chick between legs

Round the Year: Spring,p57 Mole eats worm

Round the Year: Spring,p65 Cuckoo fed by a meadow-pipit.

Round the Year: Spring,p73 Puffin gazes down hole

Round the Year: Spring,p79 Spotted flycatcher catches flying insects

Round the Year: Spring,p87 Partridge and chicks

Round the Year: Spring,p95 Black-headed gulls and terns

Round the Year: Spring,p103 Coot chick spots fish jumping

Lastly to demonstrate the inferior quality of printing in the 1950s we have below two digital photos of the proofs sent to Raymond Sheppard - used with permission of Christine Sheppard - and the colour on them is superb compared to the scans I have made above.

TITLE of writings by Maribel Edwin	DATE
Brian and the Wood-Folk. [A nature story for children.].	London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1924.
Rovers & Stay-at-homes, etc. [Tales of animals.].	London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927.
In England--Now!" The countryside week by week.illustrated by F I Noble.	London: Sheldon Press [1930]
The Valiant Jester.	London: Ward, Lock & Co., 1930.
Windfall Harvest.	London: Ward, Lock & Co., 1931.
Wild folk at home.	London: 1932.
Wild Life Stories, etc.	T. Nelson & Sons: London, [1933]
Martin's annual - The chase / Maribel Edwin (ed. Joan Beauchamp)	New York : Martin Lawrence, [1935]
What can we do now?" A younger week-end book, ("Out and about in the country; a nature calendar, by Maribel Edwin": p. 123-153; "Round the year on the seashore, by L. R. Brightwell": p. 175-195.)	London: T. Nelson and sons. [1935]
Atmosphere for Gloria.	London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1935.
Return to youth.	London, 1937.
Wild life stories.	London: 1938.
Round the year stories. The spring book	London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1938.
Countryside Tales.	London, [1938]
Round the year stories. The summer book	London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1938.
Sound alibi.	New York, Hillman-Curl, 1938.
Round the year stories. The winter book	London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1939.
Round the year stories. The autumn book	London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1939.
The Little Ass in Argosy (UK) [v 5 # 8],	September 1944
Snow Scene in Argosy (UK) [v 6 # 2],	February 1945
Nature's year.	New York, Longmans, Green [1947]
The Goad by M. Edwin, pp. 5-12 in Argosy	December 1950
This way to Greenacres	Longmans-Green, 1950.
Round the year stories (all 4 seasons in one volume)	Nelson, 1950.
Curlew Jon	Nelson, 1953.
The Zigzag Path ... Illustrated by Kiddell-Monroe.	Pp. vi. 225. Thomas Nelson & Sons: Edinburgh, 1955.
The Double Halfpenny ... Illustrated by Robert Hodgson.	Pp. vii. 211. Thomas Nelson & Sons: London, 1956.
The bridge under the water	Nelson, 1957.
The Snowbound Bus ... Illustrations by Margery Gill.	London : Thomas Nelson & Sons, [1960]
The Hidden House. Illustrated by Prue Theobalds.	London : Thomas Nelson & Sons, [1963]
Bilberry Summer ... Illustrated by Victor Ambrus.	London : Collins, 1965.

Here's a link to all four Edwin versions:

• Round the Year Stories: Spring with a brief biography and bibliography
  
• Round the Year Stories: Summer with a further biography
• Round the Year Stories: Autumn
• Round the Year Stories: Winter
• Round the Year Stories (all four seasons)

 

The Animal Doctor - Part Three

In this last part of my article showing Raymond Sheppard's illustrations to Animal Doctor I feature the rest of the illustrations which include many of his animal drawings. In these days of instant finding on the Net, we forget what trouble finding a picture of an Italian Greyhound - for example - would have been.many illustrations are just that and the scene depicted might not appear in the story itself.

Page 56 Squirrel Monkey (?)

Page 65 Man studies by angle poise light

Page 66 Italian greyhound

Page 71 Goat kid

Page 73 Man smiling whilst smoking pipe

Page 74 Horses and jockeys jumping hedge in race

Page 98 Man looking at birds in cages

Page 109 Boxer

Page 110 Bull in its stall

Page 113 Mr. "Algernon Tiddles", and his cat and the vet with clipboard

Page 121 Farmer & farmhand hold cow's horns whilst vet makes notes

Page 134 Farmer & vet take jackets off in cow stall

Page 145 Three men look at 10 sheep which have been 'worried' by dogs and vet approaching

Page 155 Landscape with road in distance

Page 171 Calf stands for first time

Page 172 Dog worrying two sheep

Page 180 Two men drinking

The Animal Doctor - Part Two

Royal Veterinary College NW1 0TU (Present day taken from Google Streetview)

Page viii (Drawn by Sheppard 1956)

 
The 'action' in this story (Animal Doctor by Laurence Maynell) begins at the Royal Veterinary College in Camden Town. The building illustrated by Raymond Sheppard is still used today by the College and "is also home to the London Bioscience and Innovation Centre (LBIC)". As their site states:

The foundation of The Veterinary College, London, in 1791 marked the establishment of the veterinary profession in this country. The development of the profession can be traced to that single act  [...] The Veterinary College, London, was born in the parish of St Pancras in 1791, on the present-day site of The Royal Veterinary College's Camden Town Campus. On 4 January 1792, the first four students attended the College to begin a three-year course intended to cover all aspects of the veterinary art. As funds became available the College developed, with facilities that provided a clear benefit to subscribers, such as stabling and an infirmary, taking precedence over a lecture theatre and dissecting rooms.

 Once can see, comparing the 1956 drawing to the current photo that the side archway and railings are still there, and as one would expect road markings and traffic have increased. The entrance as illustrated  by Sheppard hasn't change much either

Taken from Google Streetview

Page 10

To be continued...Part Three

The Animal Doctor - Part One

Cover

Page vi

The Animal Doctor by Laurence Meynell was illustrated by Raymond Sheppard and is one in a series called "Oxford Career Books". The series included the following titles spread over two decades as far as I can trace:

1. STUDENTS AT QUEEN’S by John Stuart Arey, 1944
2. THE FIRST TRIPPER by Peter Dawlish, 1947 (Illustrated by P. A. Jobson and the topic was the Merchant Navy) - more on Dawlish and Raymond Sheppard another day 
3. THE YOUNG SCHOOLMASTER by Aubrey de Selincourt, 1948 (illustrated by F.W. Middlehurst)
4. THE MONDAY STORY by James Leasor, 1951 (Illustrated by Evadné Rowan).
5. POLICEMAN IN THE FAMILY by Laurence Walter Meynell, 1953 (illustrated by Neville Dear)
6. AN ACTOR’S LIFE FOR ME by Roland Pertwee, 1953 (Illustrated by T. R. Freeman)
7. HOTEL DOORWAY by Lorna Lewis, 1953 (Illustrated by Charlotte Hough) 
8. THE ANIMAL DOCTOR by Laurence Meynell, 1956 (illustrated by Raymond Sheppard)
9. THE YOUNG ARCHITECT by Laurence Walter Meynell, 1958

The blurb states "Each book combines a first-rate story with authentic details about a particular career." and 'story' should be taken literally. Meynell had many pseudonyms and wrote as a man and a woman! He was born in 1899 and died in 1989 and is most well known for his thrillers and some of his books were made into films. His fascinating story can be read online  so there's no point in me re-telling it. His bibliography can been seen together with a photo here, and Steve Holland has a small gallery of Meynell's thriller covers. His obituary appeared in the Times of Tuesday 18 April 1989. He appeared to be a tidy man even in death leaving £286,286 in his will!

The Times 18 April 1989

Raymond Sheppard's illustrations for the Animal Doctor show his flare and talent for depicting animals - he was a natural choice.

Page 1 Boy with cat

Page 8 Owl

Page 18 Young man talks to RVC porter

Page 22 Bear on chain

Page 40 Goat

Page 41 Cats in a frame

Page 55 hamster (?) eating carrots

To be continued...Part Two

The Favourite Wonder Book

The Favourite Wonder Book published by Odham Press was reprinted many times to my knowledge and later reprints had their reprint dates on the title page but unfortunately that was unusual. The British Library have a copy with an accession date of 1938. I own two copies which are exact reprints - one with no date and the other exact copy but for the cover with the date "Reprinted 1946"

Raymond Sheppard illustrated a short poem called Little Trotty Wagtail by John Clare (the poet born in 1793). It's a humorous poem with staccato sounds mirroring the nervous bird's actions. It's unusual for Sheppard to do this sort of caricatured face on a bird but he was only 25 years of age, if we take the British Library's date.

Favourite Wonder Book Page 183

Little trotty wagtail he went in the rain,
And twittering, tottering sideways he ne'er got straight again,
He stooped to get a worm, and looked up to get a fly,
And then he flew away ere his feathers they were dry.

Little trotty wagtail, he waddled in the mud,
And left his little footmarks, trample where he would.
He waddled in the water-pudge, and waggle went his tail,
And chirrupt up his wings to dry upon the garden rail.

Little trotty wagtail, you nimble all about,
And in the dimpling water-pudge you waddle in and out;
Your home is nigh at hand, and in the warm pig-sty,
So, little Master Wagtail, I'll bid you a good-bye. 

For researchers here are the two contents pages for the book. It can be easily bought on eBay, Abebooks etc and has wonderful colour and black and white illustrations. I have seen copies for sale that are blue, brown, black and burgundy, but also a printed colour illustrative dustjacket and the book with endpapers (which my two do not have). Another example of how hard it is to trace and catalogue these Odham and Blackie & Sons titles!

British Fresh and Salt Water Fish - Updated

British Fresh Water Fishes Plate 1

 

UPDATED ARTICLE: January 2024

Originally I had only seen the four colour plates shown below and had no real clue where they were published. 

I can now reveal they appeared in at least two editions of "Newnes Pictorial Knowledge" Volume 8 and appeared in the section titled 'The Angler's Art' as a special colour supplement between pages 256-258 with pages unnumbered. [In another edition the four plates appear in the same article (with replacement photos but same text) between pages 264-265]. 

The other illustrations seem to be drawn by "Cowell" and later Ernest Aris drew some colour plates of butterflies in this volume. The other fish topic comes under Pets and features tropical fish but this is not drawn by Sheppard and is not signed.

I suspect the earlier edition has the following credits:

• GENERAL EDITOR: R. D. Poole and Peter Finch
• ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Enid Blyton
• TECHNICAL: EDITOR: I. Molloy
• ART EDITOR: A. H. J. Humphreys

The excellent Enid Blyton Society website states the first edition was 1930 and the publisher,  The Home Library Book Company, which I think is a Newnes' imprint. Another note in the Blyton forum mentions Blyton "is credited as Associate Editor, and her husband (at the time) H A Pollock as General Editor. The edition is the 1934 reprint of the Second Edition (of 1933)".

I have also seen a version with these credits - and it's this one in which Sheppard's plates appear between pages 264-265:

• GENERAL EDITOR: Peter Finch
• ASSOCIATE EDITORS: R. H. Poole, Walter Shepherd, Cedric Dover
  

The 1949 edition index is shown here - using one of the fish drawn on the colour plate below:

This shows we have the correct book - but how early did this appear? Time might tell! The title was still being used in the 1960s as an advert in Children's Newspaper shows 

So as usual with these sorts of titles, their publication is convoluted for the collector!

Thanks to Anybook.com who helped me eliminate results (the 1945 edition "Unfortunately, none of these images appear in this particular volume") but especially to Val Robinson who remembered where the plates appeared which led to a more focussed search.

The reason Val got in touch was the production of tea towels of these four plates. Christine Sheppard was happy to give permission for their reproduction. Val stated:

I do have have some printed if you know of anyone who wishes to purchase them They cost £10 each plus postage and I am happy for anyone to contact me.
Take care and Best Regards.
Val [valli.robinson@btopenworld.com]

 These tea towels look great!

~Norman 2024

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The following colour plates are taken from a book. I'm guessing they were in an encyclopaedia, and I would love to know if anyone knows which book they appeared in. 

If you enlarge the plates the only clue I can see is "N.P.K. VIII p.256" (and 257)". Knowing books of this era (pre-1958) the initials might stand for something like "New Pictorial Knowledge"...but that title was published in the 1970s.There is a mention of the fact that these paintings are "Specially painted for this work" on the colour plates

Fresh Water Fish 1

Fresh Water 1
1= Pike, 2= Perch, 3= Carp, 4= Trout, 5= Roach, 6= Salmon

Fresh Water Fish 2

Fresh Water 2
7= Stickleback, 8=Minnow, 9=Grayling, 10= Char, 11= Barbel, 12= Loach, 13= Miller's Thumb or Bullhead

Fresh Water 3

Fresh Water3
14= Gudgeon, 15= Tench, 16= Bream, 17= Dace, 18= Chub,

Salt Water Fish 1

Salt Water 1
19= Large Spotted Dogfish , 20= Red Mullet, 21= Mackerel, 22= John Dory, 23= Plaice,
24= Conger Eel