December 12, 2006 @ 7:13 am | Filed under: Little House
A Publisher’s Weekly article discusses some of the changes in the works for the Little House books. (Laura’s books are being reissued with new photographic covers and without the Garth Williams art, and no, I’m not thrilled about it.) You’ll still be able to get Garth’s art, though, both in the hardcover editions and the colorized paperbacks, which are being kept in print.
If you’d like to hear my editor’s thoughts on the reissues, check out the comments at Fuse #8.
I’m very upset. I posted a comment on the publisher’s website. Garth Williams didn’t just draw cute pictures for those books. (Unlike some of the silly cover art we see today!) He went to the places Laura lived, so he could create accurate illustrations.
This is like removing salt from your favorite bread recipe…the results will never be the same.
(A roundup post with links to my notes and reviews)
Hey, what happened to all those booklists you used to have in your sidebars at the old blog?
They're still accessible at melissawiley.typepad.com, where this blog lived from January 2005-March 2008. You can also find all my Lilting House posts there, or try the search bar here. All my previous Bonny Glen and Lilting House posts have been imported to this site.
Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Be like the bird
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
—Victor Hugo
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“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
How could they ever replace those sweet illustrations we fell in love with right along with the story?
Posted on December 12th, 2006 at 8:49 amLaura without Garth Williams is like A.A. Milne without Ernest Shepherd. It’s just wrong.
Posted on December 12th, 2006 at 9:01 amGood grief! Little House=Garth Williams. There’s no other option. Period. *puts hands on hips and glares*
Posted on December 12th, 2006 at 4:27 pmHave they lost their minds? These illustrations could not be more lovely.
Posted on December 13th, 2006 at 5:24 amI followed the links to a photo of the new cover — ewww! Ick. Just, wrong, on all levels. Such a pity
I have been passionate about these books since I was a very little girl: I cannot imagine buying these new versions.
Posted on December 13th, 2006 at 9:39 amEewwww is right … it’s all wrong.
Harumph.
Posted on December 15th, 2006 at 6:18 amI’m very upset. I posted a comment on the publisher’s website. Garth Williams didn’t just draw cute pictures for those books. (Unlike some of the silly cover art we see today!) He went to the places Laura lived, so he could create accurate illustrations.
This is like removing salt from your favorite bread recipe…the results will never be the same.
Posted on December 26th, 2006 at 5:19 pm