Fans Get Chance To Own 'charlotte's Web' Illustrations
Few children's books have impacted pop culture as much as "Charlotte's Web."
The 1952 book, by E. B. White (1899-1985) and illustrator Garth Williams (1912-1996), tells the tale of Wilbur the pig, who is saved from being slaughtered by a clever spider named Charlotte. The work has spawned movies, theatrical plays, video games, toys and stuffed animals.
Now, the Williams' estate is making the book's illustrations available to collectors in what experts say is the first time in recent memory that original art from a significant children's book has been auctioned. More than 40 original illustrations from "Charlotte's Web", including the cover, are featured in Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries' illustration auction, scheduled for Oct. 14, 2010, in New York City.
Barry Sandoval, director of operations at Heritage's comics division, says "Charlotte's Web" is the best-selling children's paperback of all time. "Anytime you see a poll of the most beloved children's books, it's at or near the top," Sandoval says. "It's a touching story that appeals to boys and girls in the U.S. and around the world."
The original cover art for the book is expected to sell for between $20,000 and $30,000. Inside illustrations could fetch up to $12,000 each.
Williams' friend and attorney Richard M. Ticktin says when Williams started working on books in the 1940s, his illustrations were forwarded to the publisher, used, and then returned. "Garth managed to collect most of the art for most of the books he illustrated," Ticktin says, "and they remained in his possession until his death."
Today, the artist is considered among the giants of children's literature. In addition to "Charlotte's Web", Williams illustrated White's "Stuart Little", Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series of books, and numerous Little Golden Books. His work has been compared to that of Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914) for "Alice in Wonderland" and Ernest Shepard (1879-1976) for "Winnie-the-Pooh."
"Garth Williams was a brilliant, versatile and sensitive collaborator, having produced illustrations for the works of so many outstanding authors for children -- Margaret Wise Brown, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Russell Hoban, Randall Jarrell, Margery Sharp and George Selden, to mention a few," says Andrea Immel, curator of the Cotsen Children's Library in the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Princeton University.
Williams was born in New York to a family of artists; his father was a cartoonist and his mother a painter. He studied at Westminster School of Art in London before landing an assignment to illustrate White's first children's story, "Stuart Little". The 1945 tale about a shy mouse born to human parents touches on themes of leaving home for the first time, of growing up, and of discovering oneself.
Seven years later, White and Williams teamed up again for "Charlotte's Web", which has become a staple of elementary school reading lists. "What the book is about," the New York Times Book Review observed, "is friendship on earth, affection and protection, adventure and miracle, life and death, trust and treachery, pleasure and pain, and the passing of time. As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way it is done."
By the time of his death in a small Mexican village where he had retired, Williams had illustrated dozens of books and entertained millions of readers.
"We continue to get letters addressed to Garth from fourth graders, wondering how it is he was able to draw these animals and people so perfectly that he instilled in these kids a love of nature," Ticktin says. "His work, not only on 'Charlotte's Web' but on 'The Cricket in Times Square', 'Chester Cricket's Pigeon Ride', 'Baby Farm Animals', 'The Gingerbread Rabbit', and 'The Rabbits' Wedding', is exquisite."
"Without a doubt," Sandoval adds, "Garth Williams is one of the most important and influential 20th-century children's book illustrators. When young and old readers today think about their favorite fictional characters -- pigs, bears, mice, dogs, kittens, crickets and spiders -- the images in their minds are essentially the images created by Williams. His work will live forever in American literature."
by: Hector Cantu
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