Jane Badger Books
C W Anderson
“Anderson has few rivals within his chosen field of writing and illustration. He combined a magnificent talent for illustrating all kinds of horses with an ability to write clearly and to convey to all ages his love and knowledge of horses.” [Edward Kemp]
Clarence William Anderson (1891 - 1971) is not as well known as he should be in Britain. Some of his books were published in the early 1950s and 1960s (Hurricane Hill and Afraid to Ride) but they never appeared in paperback, and this is perhaps why they did not reach a wider audience here. And that is a very great shame, as his drawings are delightful: wonderfully clean. The books probably would not have translated that well to paperback: his drawings really need to be done justice by being printed on decent paper of a decent size. I came across my first of his books in a Norfolk bookshop, and was enchanted. The illustrations in Afraid to Ride were a complete delight, and I was amazed that this was the first time I’d come across him.
In Britain, it is the great sporting artists; the portrayers of hunting and racing who have the greatest recognition. C W Anderson generally covered much more domestic subjects. His books would certainly, I think, merit being published again, or even some of the best illustrations collected together as an anthology. I would be at the head of the queue.
C W Anderson was born in Wahoo, Nebraska in 1891, and died in 1971. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago for 3 years. Doris Patee was the editor who discovered Anderson as an illustrator. She encouraged him to write stories to accompany his illustrations, and this was the start of the Billy and Blaze series
There is a strong streak of education in British pony books, with Josephine Pullein-Thompson and Major Holbrooke and Ruby Ferguson and Martin Lowe, and C W Anderson was its equivalent in America. Keen to educate his reader; he used an adult figure to give information; using long talks between the adult and his child character to show how best to do things. He , was a judge for the American Horse Shows Association, so undoubtedly had plenty to impart: the groom or trainer was “that embodiment of Anderson as horse lover and authority.” [Edward Kemp]
His drawings were lithographs. He said:
"All my illustrations are drawn on stone, for I find lithography the most satisfactory reproduction I know of, for you are in reality your own engraver when you work in lithography. The problem is that it permits no changes or corrections but it gets a brilliance and clarity not found in half tone." [The Junior Book of Authors]
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau and Fiona Williams for all their help with bibliographic information and photographs.
Sources:
The Junior Book of Authors
Contemporary Children’s Authors, ed Chevalier, 3rd edn. 1989
This site has more information on the author (though from a bookseller’s point of view) and a picture of him.
Clarence William Anderson (1891 -
In Britain, it is the great sporting artists; the portrayers of hunting and racing who have the greatest recognition. C W Anderson generally covered much more domestic subjects. His books would certainly, I think, merit being published again, or even some of the best illustrations collected together as an anthology. I would be at the head of the queue.
C W Anderson was born in Wahoo, Nebraska in 1891, and died in 1971. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago for 3 years. Doris Patee was the editor who discovered Anderson as an illustrator. She encouraged him to write stories to accompany his illustrations, and this was the start of the Billy and Blaze series
There is a strong streak of education in British pony books, with Josephine Pullein-
His drawings were lithographs. He said:
"All my illustrations are drawn on stone, for I find lithography the most satisfactory reproduction I know of, for you are in reality your own engraver when you work in lithography. The problem is that it permits no changes or corrections but it gets a brilliance and clarity not found in half tone." [The Junior Book of Authors]
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau and Fiona Williams for all their help with bibliographic information and photographs.
Sources:
The Junior Book of Authors
Contemporary Children’s Authors, ed Chevalier, 3rd edn. 1989
This site has more information on the author (though from a bookseller’s point of view) and a picture of him.
Above
Afraid to Ride
Internal illustrations and front cover of The Blind Connemara
Afraid to Ride
Internal illustrations and front cover of The Blind Connemara
The Bibliography
Putting together the bibliography has been something of a trial. I’ve found mention of titles in several different sources. It’s likely that there are more titles I haven’t found (particularly those illustrated by C W Anderson but not written by him), and that my categorisation of them into children and adult is wrong on some titles. If I’ve made mistakes, or if you know of more titles, please let me know.
