so I've been really hooked on the blog "
A Journey Round My Skull" lately.
Here are some highlights (click image to view article)
"Kiepenheuer published a children's book by [Bertolt] Brecht called Die drei Soldaten (The Three Soldiers) in 1931. The illustrations were by George Grosz. This book came as a sharp contrast to the new wave of chauvinistic war literature, ruthlessly exposing the horrors of war. 'The book is intended when read aloud to provoke children to ask questions,' Brecht wrote in his introduction. It was followed by Grosz's title drawing."
M.L. Mammen, Der Orchideengarten, 1919, issue 12
"In his Fantasy Book Franz Rottensteiner gives the story behind Der Orchideengarten
'...there was the obscure and now rather rare German magazine, Der Orchideengarten, which flourished for only three years, from 1919 till 1921. This large-format magazine (similar to the pulp 'bedsheet') must surely rank as one of the most beautiful fantasy magazines ever published. Its 51 issues...featured an impressive gallery of fantastic art, ranging from reproductions of medieval woodcuts, and the work of established masters of macabre drawing like Gustave Dore or Tony Johannot, to contemporary German artists like Rolf von Hoerschelmann, Otto Linnekogel, Karl Ritter, Heinrich Kley, or Alfred Kubin.... The fiction, however, was mixed; the new German fantasy stories were usually somewhat pedestrian, although contributing authors included Karl Hans Strobl [also the editor, along with Alf von Czibulka], H. H. Schmitz and Leo Perutz, but the magazine also printed a wide selection of fantastic stories by famous foreign authors such as Dickens, Pushkin, Charles Nodier, Maupassant, Poe, Voltaire, Gautier, Washington Irving, Hawthorne, Valerii Briusov, H. G. Wells, Karel and Josef Capek, Victor Hugo, and others equally prominent.... Although two issues of Der Orchideengarten were devoted to detective stories, and one to erotic stories about cuckolds, it was a genuine fantasy magazine.'"
"A friend gave me her parents' copy of this 1923 rarity to scan:
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Poe, illustrated by Harry Clarke (Ireland, 1889 - 1931)."
"I discovered the incredible Japanese illustrator Rokuro Taniuchi (1921 - 1981) while searching for Tadanori Yokoo books. On the Amazon listing for this profusely-illustrated book -- Taniuchi Rokuro Gensouki (Shinshindo, 1981) -- Yokoo is listed as the editor. The book seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth, and I feel incredibly lucky to have found it."
From wikipedia: "Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese: 歌川国芳) (1797-1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting and belonged to the Utagawa school."
"My innocent search for information for an upcoming post on Horst Sagert (German set designer) brought me to some incredibly strange places today. And I can therefore introduce you to the stunning bookplate collection of one Wolfgang Wissing."
(all quotes from
A Journey Round My Skull)
