E. H. Davie

Enid used many illustrators in her books. Discuss them here.
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pete9012S
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E. H. Davie

Post by pete9012S »

A very popular artist who illustrated some of the classic Enid Blyton titles..

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/sear ... E.H.+Davie" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are even postcards available by E. H. Davie ...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E-H-DAVIE-WASH- ... 20f64a55c8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But,as has been mentioned recently and in the past,was E. H. Davie a man or a woman?

Edited to show Tony's upgraded search results. :D
Last edited by pete9012S on 23 Apr 2015, 12:07, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Oh dear, Pete has started an E.H. Davie thread and everybody is discussing him/her on the Jessie Land thread! :wink:

Let me just say in this thread that E.H. Davie was possibly Enid's most prolific illustrator as almost every issue of Sunny Stories contains illustrations by him/her - very often on the riddle or poem by children near the beginning of each issue. It would be great to find out something about him/her - if only what sex he/she actually was! :roll:
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Katharine »

I see they illustrated 4 Enid Blyton books, 2 for Newnes and 2 for Basil Blackwell. Has anyone ever tried contacting these firms or whoever took them over for information? As I said in the Jesse Land thread, I find it hard to understand how there is no information on these illustrators at all. Their payments must have been sent somewhere or did they just walk in off the streets, hand over their paintings and get a handful of cash in return with no paperwork at all?

I dare say I'm being a bit naïve here, but when I see the information they can dig up on programmes like Who do you think you are?, which often goes back 100 years or more and covers more than one country, I find it strange that someone who was living only a couple of generations ago is such a mystery. In theory, E. H. Davie might only have died quite recently, or at a push, may still be alive if they were only about 20 in 1938.
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Courtenay »

How come Pete's search for E.H. Davie hasn't brought up the three Galliano's Circus books as well? :|

I too am fascinated and puzzled that we don't know the identity, or even the gender, of this artist who did so much work for Enid, including some quite popular titles. As Katherine says, surely there must be some information in the publishers' archives somewhere!

I think I assumed "E.H." was a he until I found out we didn't know - there's certainly no way of telling from his/her illustrating style, whatever people may assume. I do feel a male artist would be more likely to go by his initials than a female one, but as we've already discussed elsewhere, that doesn't prove anything either, even though I too can't think of any female artists who've avoided making their gender obvious. As I mentioned in the other thread, if a female author as recently as the 1990s (J.K. Rowling) could choose to go by her initials alone because of perceived prejudices (real or assumed) against a female children's author, a female artist in the 1930s and '40s could conceivably have done the same.

Maybe one day someone will solve the mystery...
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Rob Houghton »

It's a very interesting mystery. Although I said I would like to bet EH Davie was a man, I would be happy to find she was a woman! It would be interesting to know, and I agree - surely it should be fairly easy (with the right magic formula!) to find out?

I'd always assumed EH Davie was a man and just presumed I'd read it somewhere, but obviously not. For years I've looked at the illustrations in Secret Island, Galliano's Circus, Smuggler Ben etc and presumed they were drawn by a man. I guess this was partly due to the fact that The Adventurous Four illustrations are quite masculine somehow - with uniforms and the aeroplanes etc - although there's no reason why a woman wouldn't have drawn them, of course, and I realise that's fairly sexist of me! :oops:

One pointer to E H Davie maybe being a woman is that, looking at many of Enid's illustrators in the 1930's and 40's - Dorothy Wheeler, Hilda McGavin, Sylvia Venus, Eileen Soper, Joyce Mercer, Rosalind M Turvey, Joyce A Johnson, Kathleen Nixon, etc, they were almost exclusively women. I think that J Abbey was one of the first male illustrators, along with Stuart Tresilian, and W Lindsay Cable, but at the time of Secret Island Enid seemed to mainly use female illustrators - though maybe this was just a coincidence and doesn't prove anything - just an observation!

Maybe we can solve the mystery! :-)
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by walter raleigh »

He or she seems to have done plenty of other work besides Blyton:

http://www.alephbet.com/pages/books/368 ... ittle-pigs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookD ... 3DEH+Davie" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/My-Favourite- ... 1230293986" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.peakirkbooks.com/si/59418.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Of course this doesn't give us any more information on their gender or background, although the books themselves may possibly contain some biographical notes.
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Courtenay wrote:How come Pete's search for E.H. Davie hasn't brought up the three Galliano's Circus books as well?
The search facility is very sensitive on things like initials, my fault her for not being consistent with the listing but I will sort those four books from Pete's first search out! There should not have been a gap between the 'H' and the full stop before it. Try this one!!

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/sear ... E.H.+Davie" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have now adjusted admin, so that my search above picks up everything and Pete's is blank! Sorry Pete! :D
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Tony Summerfield »

Having said that E.H. Davie was a prolific illustrator for Enid Blyton I thought some might like to see where he/she comes in the longevity pecking order - the years between their first and last illustrations for Enid.

Grace Lodge 1924 - 1965 = 41 years
Hilda McGavin 1929 - 1969 = 40 years
Sylvia I. Venus 1928 - 1958 = 30 years
Dorothy M. Wheeler 1930 - 1958 = 28 years
Eileen A. Soper 1942 - 1964 = 22 years
Horace J. Knowles 1924 - 1942 = 18 years
E.H. Davie 1936 - 1952 = 16 years

You won't necessarily get these results if you search the Cave as unfortunately entries for Sunny Stories for Little Folks aren't picked up. Also the entry for Grace Lodge comes from Enid Blyton's Workbook, where Enid puts that Birn Brothers have accepted her alterations to Grace Lodge's book, but unfortunately it doesn't say which book it was!

I haven't included Rene Cloke on this list as most of her work was done some time after Enid's death, but her first work was done in Sunny Stories for Little Folks in 1931, so if I had included her she would be at the top of the list!

Do let me know if you think I have overlooked anyone. The prize for sheer quantity probably goes to Hilda McGavin who illustrated 137 magazine covers and 240 magazine stories - but this does not count the stories that she illustrated in Sunny Stories for Little Folks.
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Rob Houghton »

That's an interesting list, Tony - thank you for doing that. It certainly puts things in perspective regards quantity. I missed Grace Lodge when I was listing a few female illustrators earlier, as again, doing a search for her in the cave showed that she only started illustrating things for Enid in about 1947 - interesting that she was actually one of the first rather than one of the last!

It still seems that for some reason very few of Enid's early illustrators were men...wonder why this was? I'm guessing, and this probably sounds very sexist nowadays, that women illustrators were cheaper than their male equivalents? :shock:
'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: E. H. Davie

Post by Courtenay »

Robert Houghton wrote: It still seems that for some reason very few of Enid's early illustrators were men...wonder why this was? I'm guessing, and this probably sounds very sexist nowadays, that women illustrators were cheaper than their male equivalents? :shock:
Perhaps it could have been that there were fewer men in those days who were willing to illustrate children's books and magazines? It might have been seen as a "woman's job" and too demeaning for a male artist who wanted to be taken seriously.
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by pete9012S »

Great list to look over.Thanks Tony.
I have edited my original post to show your more complete search results for E.H.Davie in my original post.
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Rob Houghton »

Courtenay wrote:
Robert Houghton wrote: It still seems that for some reason very few of Enid's early illustrators were men...wonder why this was? I'm guessing, and this probably sounds very sexist nowadays, that women illustrators were cheaper than their male equivalents? :shock:
Perhaps it could have been that there were fewer men in those days who were willing to illustrate children's books and magazines? It might have been seen as a "woman's job" and too demeaning for a male artist who wanted to be taken seriously.

That's a very good point, and seems to back up my theory that maybe EH Davie was indeed a man, who didn't want to be identified as such! 8)
'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: E. H. Davie

Post by Katharine »

Could it be that there were fewer men in general after the war? Those that did survive were probably too busy in 'normal' jobs to have the time to spend on drawings. Also, I would imagine that the income from being an artist was somewhat irregular, so a man might have to opt for something more stable, especially if he had a wife and family to raise. I'm guessing here, but I would have thought that most of the women who were illustrators were either being kept by husbands or still lived at home with their parents to support them.

I know I read about one illustrator who lived in the family home with her sister. So presumably she didn't have an mortgage or rent to pay, and was possibly left money by her parents to help support her during any lean times work wise.
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Re: E. H. Davie

Post by Rob Houghton »

I think that was probably the case quite often. illustrating for children's books was probably viewed as a hobby that paid, rather than a full time career, even if some of the illustrators like Soper and Hilda McGavin were incredibly prolific, I bet they had to be, in order to make anything near to a 'living wage'.
'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: E. H. Davie

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

I think I would guess at E.H. Davie being a woman, actually. :)

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