CAS

CAS

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Appendix Z - Howard Pyle



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





3 comments:

  1. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The 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.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I 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.

    ReplyDelete

Generic messages by Anonymous users will be deleted.