Other Printed Materials

1975 Galleys of “The Fables of Aesop, Selected and Illustrated by David Levine.” Translated by Patrick and Justina Gregory. Boston: Gambit. Our first galleys! From one of my earliest and most favorite fable books! The set is complete, 8 numbered signatures, each with a progressive mark of its place in the text and all with the number “2082. Notice these markings in the photo below. Each signature has 4 large pages folded in half to produce 16 pages 7” x 9.7”.

2015? Aesop's Fables Watercolor Print Set, Nursery & Classroom Decor (Digital Download). Created by MuggersKnowBest. Each of 6 prints tells the story well and adds watercolors of the creatures involved. "The Young Crab & His Mother" adds a pleasant last turn of events as the mother crab tries to "turn her toes out," she trips and falls on her nose. The crow in FC is female. The hare wants to "make the tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare," and so he lies down to nap until the tortoise catches up. The laughing lion in LM may be the best of the animal pictures.

2008 The New Yorker Cover for Sept. 22, 2008: “The Race Is On” by Barry Blitt. Gift of Jeanette Hilton, found as Creighton weeded its library materials. Do I understand the cartoon correctly, that racing slow and steady means taking the subway, while hailing a cab is the hare’s way? And will the hare sleep in the cab? Or will a cab never come?

1929 “Anything to Please! (An Aesop Fable Retold)”. Verses by Jane Corby. Picture by P.H. Webb. Boys and Girls Section, “Saturday Free Press,” Winnipeg Canada, June 1, 1929. Unknown source. This is a dramatic one-picture presentation of a great story! There are surprise and wonder on the humans’ faces; there may be a trace of animosity and anger on the donkey’s face. The rainbow background fits the loud presentation well. The rhythms and rhymes in the couplets are sometimes forced, but the story goes through a good progression. Here the son is the first rider, and that opens up a chance for him to jump down generously when he is criticized. This version ends with a moral: “Well, that is all; the story’s done. You see, you can’t please everyone. It’s best to do with all your might Just what you think yourself is right.”

1922 “In Aesop’s Fable Land.” From the painting by E.J. Detmold. The Illustrated London News Christmas Number, 1922. Printed on stiff board. Image 8.6” x 11.4”. Board 9.7” x 14.5”. Unknown source. The group presentation is typical of Detmold’s more specific fables as I am aware of them. As in those illustrations, the artist is less interested in the fable than he is in the animals.

1911 Newspaper illustration and text: “The Old Man, His Son, and the Ass: an Aesop Fable.” Indianapolis Sunday Star. June 4, 1911. In this version, “the old man, mad and tired with trying to please everybody, threw the ass into the river.” Were these colors originally sharper?

1872 “The Fox and the Grapes.” Illustration in “The Illustrated London News” for Oct. 26, 1872. (Page 396). F. Wentworth. With accompanying text on 395. Image 12.2" x 8.5". Page 14" x 11". Unknown source. The accompanying text helps interpret the scene. It begins “The young coxcomb who lurks in the background of this scene, with his glass stuck in his right eye for a seemingly indifferent look at the girls, seated with their papa under the leafy vine, may affected to hide his disappointment at not finding one or other alone. But we shall not be deceived by this flippant behaviour on his part….”

1916? Photograph of Gustav Klimt’s “Fable.” Image 12.2” x 8.7”. Overall 16.5” x 11.6”. Perhaps from fineartamerica. Starting from the right, we find here FS; FK; perhaps “Heron”; perhaps “Lion in Love”; and perhaps TMCM. There may well be other fables hidden in the painting. d

1910? Magazine excerpt featuring a line engraving of Heinrich Möller’s sculpture group of Aesop with two children. Unknown source. Researching this piece has been fascinating. First of all the attribution here is highly misleading, since Heinrich Müller was a prominent Nazi, while Karl Heinrich Möller died in 1882 after producing this sculpture. Reproductions of this very engraving are available on the web. I feature one below the magazine excerpt.

1902 Photograph of Louis Galliac’s “Homme Courant après la Fortune.” 8” x 11.4”. Braun, Clément et Cie. Unknown source. This is a touching scene of La Fontaine’s Fable (Book 7, Fable 12). One of a pair needs to seek his fortune; the other prefers to stay home. The former has a tough time of it and comes home to find his fortune. One can ask in this depiction whether the wandering partner is leaving or returning. In either case, the stay-at-home partner is eager for his return. Was this a colored painting? I cannot locate an original on the web.

2000? Photograph of the La Fontaine Memorial in Jardin du Ranelagh in Paris. Unknown source. This statue is dear to me for several reasons. The strongest is that the video team I was a part of in June, 2025 spent several hours in our last morning together doing video work on and around this statue. It pictures La Fontaine’s best known fable, FC. The original statue was erected in 1891, but it was melted down during World War II. The current bronze statue, created by French-Portuguese sculptor Charles Correia, replaced the original in 1983.

1996? Photo of the Ivan Krylov memorial in the Summer Garden, St. Petersburg. 4” x 5.7”. This is an impressive monument and I have wanted to visit it and St. Petersburg generally. I came close in Scandinavia but could not fit in the ferry trip to spend a day there. This photograph is on paper lighter than we would use for a photo.