Appendix Z - Howard
Pyle
Both
illustrator and writer, Pyle was an amazing artist. So far I have only read
three of his books, but his Merry Adventures of Robin Hood was probably the
first non-children's book I ever read. For me it is the best of books and I've
managed to hang onto that copy of it all my life. Men of Iron comes a close
second. They made a rather enjoyable light movie out of it with Tony Curtis and
Janet Leigh, but as with most Hollywood versions it has little to do with the
book. The book has much more grit to it and much less pastel costumes and
jumping about and tin plate armor suits. For the rest of his work I remember
the Arthurian Legends vaguely but favorably (though I am not a big fan of the
Arthurian tales).
Pyle
is definitely the sword of sword and sorcery and his illustrations are some of
the best I've ever seen.
A
Modern Aladdin
Arthurian
Legends
The
Garden Behind the Moon
The
Ghost of Captain Brand
Howard
Pyle's Book of Pirates
Men
of Iron
The
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Otto
of the Silver Hand
Pepper
and Salt
The
Price of Blood
Rejected
of Men
The
Rose of Paradise
The
Ruby of Kishmoor
Stolen
Treasure
The
Story of Jack Ballister's Fortunes
Twilight
Land
Within
the Capes
The
Wonder Clock, with his sister Katharine Pyle
Currently reading Pyles Story Of King Arthur And His Knights. It's very romanticised, replete with almost cod-Shakespearean language but still flows rather poetically.
ReplyDeleteThe Arthurian stuff isn't big with me, but I did enjoy Men of Iron and Robin Hood quite a bit. I always wondered if Zelazny used the Otto of the Silver-Hand story as an idea for some of his Amber series, but I'm thinking now that there must be some root fable that talks of it.
ReplyDeleteI was given a copy of "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" (Companion Library Edition) for XMas 1976 when I was 7 years old. Given "The Story of King Arthur and His Knights" one year later. I think they predisposed me to interest in D&D when I encountered the game at age 13. I had a half-dozen more of the Companion Library books (stuff like Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn, 1001 Arabian Nights (wish I could remember if that was by Pyle as well), but Robin Hood and King Arthur are the only 2 I still know where they are, on a shelf 3 feet behind me. Just re-read Robin Hood last year.
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