Book Illustrations

Hi everyone

I'm brand new to TARS and very new to Arthur Ransome but love them both.  I particularly love AR's illustrations.  I've got several paperback titles published by Red Fox and was wondering what the other UK versions of his books were like.  Do those lovely hardbacks I've seen have AR's drawings?  Or have other illustrators been used over the years?

Would love to know more about the different editions.  Fascinated by maps too.

Anyone have favourite editions that I should look out for and favourite illustrators?

http://www.victoriaconnelly.com

In the UK all the hardbacks were illustrated by AR

BUT

The very first edition of S&A has no illustrations.

Later editions were illustrated by Clifford Webb until AR redid them in the late 1930’s.

All early editions of SD were illustrated by Clifford Webb until, again, AR re-illustrated them in the late 1930’s.

Many foreign editions had different illustrators.

Hi Victoria

One thing that is worth bearing in mind is that a small(ish) number of proofing errors have been building up in the 12 books over the years, as one edition followed another. One of Ransome's Literary Executors, Dave Sewart (sadly now deceased) recently carried out the major task of correcting these. These corrections are gradually being incorporated into new editions of each of the 12 hardback and paperbacks as they come up for reprinting. He also put a lot of effort into improving the quality of the picture reproduction, so these new editions will hopefully show improvements there as well.

I'm afraid I haven't got a list of the reprinted editions to hand, but you should be able to check with Linden at the TARS Stall as to which of the hardbacks he has in stock. If I can get hold of the latest information on the reprints I'll post it up.