Sunday, February 16, 2014

Back to the 50's, Images and Verse, and a tiny avian.

This picture is bigger than the painting!  It's a 4 x 4  - Singing of Spring (I hope).
On to thrift shop adventuring!!

I am rarely able to pass up the chance to rummage about in the books at a thrift shop or yard sale.  There's just something magical to me about finding a best loved author or a new discovery amongst the tons of Reader's Digests and Harlequin Romance rubble.


Last week I happened to notice the word Poetry on the spine of a shabby book.  Since poetry books of any kind are rare hereabouts, I eagerly pulled it out for a look.  It was a 1954 Public School Library book called the first book of poetry published by Franklin Watts, Inc., with pictures (charming line drawings) by Kathleen Elgin and poems "selected by" Isabel J. Peterson.

I wasn't yet in school in 1954, but I found a few of my favorite childhood poems included along with many unfamiliar poems and authors.  And I found that the illustrator, Kathleen Elgin, was a gifted, versatile and prolific artist working throughout the 1950's and 1960's.


 Here are a few of her drawings:

One of my favorite childhood poems - with a perfect illustration,   

2 comments:

Roy said...

Cool! When I'm in the local thrift store I'm usually looking for a toaster or a George Forman grill. Or clothes.

Patrice said...

Hey Roy - Me too, in fact almost everything I wear, with the exception of underthingies and socks comes from thrift stores.

I often don't allow myself to look at the books, because I get lost there, inevitably bringing home a few more for my overflowing shelves. But one must indulge oneself occasionally, or life just gets stale! And I love books...