Raymond Sheppard and Round the Year Stories: Summer

ROUND THE YEAR: SUMMER BY MARIBEL  EDWIN


I've previously written about Maribel Edwin and her series of "Round the Year" stories which were beautifully illustrated by Raymond Sheppard.

Round the Year Stories: Summer Book - Cover by Raymond Sheppard

This time it's the turn of Summer. Spring and Summer were advertised in newspaper advertisements in 1938 and interestingly this copy shows the series was intended to show "a different story [...] for every week of the year". There are indeed 13 black and white illustrations in each book. I have found no evidence they were published prior to this book format so I guess this format of each season presenting 13 episodes, was decided on commissioning the books. The editor 'R.W.' in the Editor's introduction suggests children read them one a week.

Daily Mirror December 8 1938 p.18

Enlarged from above

Well, let's see the illustrations by Raymond Sheppard...

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.16
Hedgehog bites adder/viper

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.22
2 chaffinches amongst blossom

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.29
Two gulls fight over a crab in a rock pool

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.32
5 gulls gliding in a blue sky

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.37
Bats silhouetted against the moon

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.46
A barn owl drops into water with wings spread

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.53
A green woodpecker is surprised by a starling sticking its head out of a hole

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.60
Two moorhens and three chicks amongst lilies

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.68
A squirrel watches frogs leaping

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.71
A kingfisher arises out of the water to a branch with 4 other kingfishers on

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.75
A kingfisher underwater catches a fish

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.82
A blackbird swoops down

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.89
A young seal sits on a ledge

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.95
A hare stands in the gloom on its rear legs

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.97
A hare runs through some rushes

Round the Year Stories: Summer p.103
6 woodpigeons take flight from some grass

The cover comes from the frontispiece (or vice-versa?) showing in colour the Green Woodpecker at his noisy work

Round the Year Stories: Summer [Frontispiece]
Green Woodpecker

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)

 

Raymond Sheppard and Seal Morning - Part Five

I mentioned that I wanted to say something about the artwork too and as this blog is about Sheppard, we need some artwork.

In the copies of Seal Morning that have Sheppard's drawings there are many 'flipped' pictures; single birds taken from the group he drewelsewhere in the book, and a rabbit leaping (but this time without the wall drawn underneath. There is also one strange picture which is 'flipped':

Lora the seal looks right with trees/bushes on her left

Lora looks left - same rock, mountain but no trees!

It was unusual but not unknown for Sheppard to use similar drawings - see below - but this is odd. The rock on the first picture looks crude on the left as if a publisher's artist was told to change it slightly. Unfortunately all my efforts to track down any original art from this work has led nowhere - disappeared just like Rowena Farre did in her lifetime!

Lastly Sheppard did so many animal studies in his lifetime that he was bound to duplicate ideas.

Hare runs right to left

The following is taken from a book called Round the year: Summer, p.97

But as you can see it's not flipped but a different picture, showing his great talent.

NEXT TIME:  Nature through the seasons in colour