Jessie Land

Enid used many illustrators in her books. Discuss them here.
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Courtenay
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Re: Jessie Land

Post by Courtenay »

pete9012S wrote: Andy seems to have completely lost his facial features in one of the illustrations.
Don't know how that got past quality control??
Oh dear, he has too. :P

Image

How do they know it's Andy and not someone else??

Jesse (with no "i") is definitely a male name - it's the name of a Bible character, King David's father (and also the name of one of my uncles). Jessie is the female name, as in Jessie Land.
Tony Summerfield wrote:Initials don't tell the whole story - I am currently reading a book by H.L. Dennis and as this is a current children's author I happen to know from her website that she is Helen Louise Dennis! Just a quick glance at my book file shows me seven or eight children's authors just using initials and they are all women.
Just like J.K. Rowling famously used her initials (I gather she even invented a middle name for the purpose) because she felt that boys would be less likely to read her books if they were obviously by a woman. :roll: I must admit, I find it very sad that women still feel they have to do that in this day and age.

Which books did E.H. Davie illustrate, by the way? I recall the name from somewhere but I can't think where...
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Re: Jessie Land

Post by Rob Houghton »

Maybe Andy's face got washed away by the pollution in the sea. ;-)

I know there were many female writers who hid behind initials not wanting their gender to be revealed - E Nesbit was one, and of course the Brontes all pretended to be men! I'd be surprised if this 'tradition' extend to illustrators, but maybe it did in some cases.

EH Davie illustrated quite a few of Enid's books in the 1930's and 40's - all of the Galliano books (I'm surprised you of all people didn't know that! ;-) ) plus the early Secret books - Island, Spiggy Holes, plus The Adventurous Four, Smuggler Ben (first edition) - plus probably a few more short stories that I can't think of. :-)
Last edited by Rob Houghton on 22 Apr 2015, 18:50, edited 1 time in total.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Courtenay
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Re: Jessie Land

Post by Courtenay »

Robert Houghton wrote: I know there were many female writers who hid behind initials not wanting their gender to be revealed - E Nesbit was one, and of course the Brontes all pretended to be men! I'd be surprised if this 'tradition' extend to illustrators, but maybe it did in some cases.
Oh yes, I know, but that was in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. I just meant I felt it was sad if female authors and illustrators in our time, or even in Enid's day, still felt they were better off not making it obvious that they were women. :|
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Re: Jessie Land

Post by Rob Houghton »

I agree - it really is sad that some women still felt they needed to do this in Enid's day and since. I don't know enough about JK Rowling to know why she chose to do this, but in a way it's a pity that she did!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: Jessie Land

Post by Katharine »

I think I read somewhere that Enid took an interest in all the illustrators of her books, is there no reference in any of her diaries or workbooks as to who any of these mystery illustrators are?
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Re: Jessie Land

Post by Courtenay »

Robert Houghton wrote: EH Davie illustrated quite a few of Enid's books in the 1930's and 40's - all of the Galliano books (I'm surprised you of all people didn't know that! ;-) ) ...
Aha, of course! I only recently obtained a couple of early edition Galliano books, which must be where I know the name from. (My childhood Galliano books were all Dean, with the excellent but uncredited mystery illustrator who also seems to have done the Dean editions of the two Adventurous Four books.) So my avatar is an E.H. Davie piece. :D

Mind you, I would be the first to say I can't tell, just by looking at the illustrations, whether he/she was male or female!!
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Re: Jessie Land

Post by walter raleigh »

I agree with Katharine, that it's quite astonishing that we know so little about many of Blyton's illustrators. There are even a number of fairly modern books in the Cave where the artist is uncredited. There surely must be some way of finding out more about them, although if Tony is at a loss I'm not sure that us mere mortals will fare any better. :?
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