Desert Fables, or Aesop in the Desert

Title

en_US Desert Fables, or Aesop in the Desert

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US First edition

en_US By Florence M. Treat

Creator

en_US Treat, Florence M.

Contributor

en_US Knipe, Bertha McEwen

Date

2016-01-25T19:03:16Z

en_US 1999-11

en_US 1948

Date Available

2016-01-25T19:03:16Z

Date Issued

en_US 1948

Abstract

en_US This book has presented me with several surprises. First, it is not like Flower Fables, original creations loosely based on the fable form. It is rather based directly on specific Aesopic fables. Secondly, the visual approach to the fables is often to find the characters of the fable suggested in desert scenes of rocks, succulents, clouds, or shadows. Thirdly, the story of the generation of this book is itself surprising. McEwen had only the use of her hands, and so she painted desert scenes in the late 1920's. She conceived of relating her work to Aesop's fables. Nearby lived the young invalid Treat who enjoyed creating fanciful verse. Treat delighted in putting words to McEwen's drawings. Treat's mother served as go-between linking the two artists. The Depression and World War II kept their work from getting published. Treat actually recovered and enjoyed an active life at the time of publication. After an introduction and foreword, there are twenty-four combinations of art on the left-hand page and verse on the right-hand page. The strategy of the art may be clearest on 9, 19, and 21: the characters here are not desert-dwellers, but rather the desert by its contours calls up their form. The texts presume knowledge of the fables generally and like to push on into a humorous comment. Thus the grasshopper and ant have learned the value of saving, but they are not saving for a rainy day. The rain beat both the sun and the wind (18). Often the humor is not in touch with the point or humor of the fable itself, as when a cactus looks like stag's horns (27). For me perhaps the best integration of it all is in The Goat and the Wolf (31-32). Some of the text's jokes I do not get, e.g., on 16. There is a T of C at the beginning and an afterword after the fables.

Identifier

en_US 4258 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/79534

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Arizona Publishers

en_US Prescott, AZ

Subject

en_US PA3855.E5 T74 1948

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole