Where I Wish to Live--and a Giveaway

On this gray November Saturday, I am wishing that . . . I could live in a multicolored castle with bright turrets, windows of lace, and trims of embroidered ribbon. This place, as designed and sewn by Resurrection Fern, is called the "Castle of Forest Fern." And I think it could be set in Alice (1918- ) and Martin Provensen's (1916-1987) bright, whimsical world.

The Provensens have lived one of those rare, richly creative and collaborative lives that many of us dream about.

The two illustrators--Martin worked in the Story Department at Disney; Alice was an animator with the Walter Lantz Studio (home of Woody Woodpecker)--met in Los Angeles during World War II, while Martin was working on a war film. They married in 1944 and later moved to upstate New York, where they lived on Maple Hill Farm, the background for many of their books. Their studio was in a converted barn on the farm.

The illustrations of a fairy-tale world shown here are from Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (Simon and Schuster, 1951). But no doubt you recognize their style from any number of classics they illustrated: Nancy Willard's William Blake's Inn, A Peaceable Kingdom, The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends, and so many more. The illustrators' work has delighted many generations of children, from the 1950s to today, and they are so beloved and inspiring that there are several Flickr sets devoted to their work. (Generations of kids have also enjoyed Kellogg's mascot Tony the Tiger, which Martin designed in 1952.)

Reviewer Virginia Johnson described the talented duo as "two illustrators and writers working so closely together that their styles were indistinguishable. It was the same style really, gentle drawings so delightful in their clarity that they subtly underscored the text of the dozens of children's books they illustrated."

Before Martin's death in 1987, the two author-illustrators collaborated on more than 40 books. They include tales of farm life in A Year at Maple Hill Farm and Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm, and the Caldecott Award-winning The Glorious Flight. For Glorious Flight, the book on aviation pioneer Louis Bleriot, Alice explained: "We both worked on most of the drawings and paintings, sometimes with one of us doing the background and the other doing the costumes and figures."

"We were a true collaboration," explained Alice, "Martin and I really were one artist."

What strikes me most about seeing their illustrations today is how gentle and playful their images are. There is so much joy in the lines and colors and in the expressions of the children and animals. They expressed the best of what was happening in the 60's and 70's, both culturally and graphically.

I am keenly aware that my 100th blog post passed without my promised giveaway. But if you are interested in receiving a copy of the Provensens' Child's Garden of Verses and a few other vintage children's books (all gently used and from our Friends of the Library sale), please leave a comment about an illustrator that leaves you dreaming of fairy-tale lands that you wished existed. I'll randomly draw a name on Sunday, November 16, to determine the winner.