[Leica] IMG: Long time no Philichrome ... Ric
Douglas Barry
imra at iol.ie
Tue Sep 19 15:43:45 PDT 2017
Ric,
Thanks to a gift to a neighbouring child from an American aunt or uncle
(the Irish diaspora used to send us things like that from the land of
plenty - good on them, and we were very grateful for any exotica from
the Star Spangled heaven), I had a loan of, and read, the "Treasure
Island" illustrated by Wyeth whose pedigree and spawn I wasn't aware of
until now. However, re-seeing it on our good friend Google, the image of
the pirates traversing the island's yellow skyline leaps out of my
memory. It made an impression.
I never saw another book with his illustrations, probably due to them
never being sold here, and that despite being gainfully employed to
daily stock, and monitor, the trestle tables laden with second hand
books during the summer of '69 at George Webb's. That was a great
bookshop right on Dublin's quays beside the Liffey, had incredibly
knowledgeable staff, and is mentioned by James Joyce in "Dubliners".
Probably Joyce liked Webbs as, per Padraic Colum, he had tried to sell
secondhand books to them, and while rebuffed, had received useful
advice. I worked from July to November that year there and had some fun
meeting the literati and the madmen of Dublin. I still remember the
touched Bang Bang whose simple pleasure was to "shoot" people cowboy
style with a "gun" which was a large key. People all around Dublin would
join in to humour him, exchange "shots", and stagger back clutching
their hearts. I remember the late John Young the manager there and
myself in our brown shop coats, ducking into the doorway, levelling
imaginary guns, and exchanging fire with Bang Bang who never seemed to
be hit. All his opponents must have had bad aims...
On "Treasure Island", there was another illustrated one for kids
produced in the UK which I had back in the 50s. It had back and white
drawings, and a colour cover which vanished thanks to the predations of
my three siblings. Possibly, the remnants are up in my mother's attic.
Douglas
On 19/09/2017 16:26, RicCarter wrote:
> from grreat books of my childhood
>
> <https://www.google.com/search?q=wyeth+book+illustrations&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjf1YOnx7HWAhUh_IMKHQvrDg8Q_AUI7wEoAQ&biw=1407&bih=1090>
>
> https://goo.gl/DFzaDb
>
> ric
>
>
>
>
>> On Sep 19, 2017, at 9:31 AM, Philippe <photo.philippe.amard at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks, I didn’t know Wyeth and am honored
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
More information about the LUG
mailing list