Friday, October 16, 2009

Wild Things in Rauner

A sketch of one of the Wild Things, inscribed to Alicia from Maurice Sendak.With Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are back in the news, it seemed like a good time to revisit The Morton E. Wise Collection of Maurice Sendak presented to the Library in 2007 in recognition of the tenth anniversary of the Roth Center for Jewish Life at Dartmouth College. The collection is filled with first editions of most of Sendak's works up to the the late 1970s and also includes some spectacular original art. But, some of the best treats to be found in the collection are the small illustrated inscriptions by Sendak that grace the flyleaves on many of the first editions. Pictured here is one of the "Wild Things" giving a Halloween "boo" sketched onto the front flyleaf of Sendak's 1963 classic.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Frankenstein Illustrated

An illustration showing Victor Frankenstein standing in a doorway, looking with alarm at his creature, a muscular, nude man reclining on the floor over a skeleton. One of the most familiar Halloween characters is that of Frankenstein's monster. The popular conception of the monster has changed over time from Boris Karloff's iconic portrayal to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. However, the first image of the monster dates to the third edition of Mary Shelley's classic (London: Colburn & Bentley, 1831) in which the monster is depicted by artist Theodor von Holst.

Come see Rauner's recent acquisition of the single volume "popular" edition, in which readers were first presented with a visual portrayal of an icon of modern horror.