september song

Oh it's a long long while from May to December

But the days grow short when you reach September

When the autumn weather turns leaves to flame

One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh the days dwindle down to a precious few

September November and these few precious days I'll spend with you

These precious days I'll spend with you.




listen

at long last blanche

Little is known regarding the writer/artist Blanche McManus, except that she was born on Talladega Plantation, in East Feliciania Parish, Louisiana, in 1870, studied in London and Paris, and returned to the U.S. in 1893 when she established a studio in Chicago. By 1895, she was authoring and illustrating a series of children's books, including The True Mother Goose (1895), The Voyage of the Mayflower (1897) and How the Dutch came to Manhattan (1897). In those same years, she was producing illustrations for other authors books, often working on three or four books at one time.

Around 1900, she travelled with writer/husband, Francis Miltoun (Milburg Francisco Mansfield), throughout Europe and North Africa.

Their collaboration led to a series of travel books, fully illustrated by McManus....The couple is probably best known for a series of illustrated travel books which incorporated the newly invented automobile within a typical travelog of the period.

Blanche McManus' sketches and water colors of the people they met and views of archi- tectural/natural scenes adds an interesting element to the books.

McManus published her first work at the age of 25. and by 30 had illustrated 15 books, 6 of which she authored also.1

(here are her alice in wonderland illustrations.)

and one more wonderful image.

who will remember their names?

[One] series by Hiroshige which we will describe is one entitled Kokon Joruri Tsukushi, "Ancient and Modern Dramas Illustrated" ; full size, upright. The number in a complete set is not known, but fourteen plates are here recorded, the largest number hitherto mentioned in any publication, as far as the writer is aware.

The title of the series is on a narrow yellow panel in the top right-hand corner, and the sub-title of the illustration on a red panel in the opposite corner, on each plate. Publisher, Sanoki ; below Hiroshige's signature is a red chrysan- themum seal, a device which has not hitherto been noted on any Hiroshige print; and two censors' seals, which place the date of the series about 1846, during the Prohibi- tion period. Very rare.

1. Sub-title : Katsuragawa Renri-no-Shigarami (the name of the drama), which concerns two lovers, Choyemon, a man forty years old, and O Han, aged fourteen, who, despairing of obtaining their parents' permission to marry, resolve to commit suicide together.

Choyemon is here shown carrying his youthful love on his back, to die together in the waters of the Katsura River, a full moon the only witness of their tragic end. One of the best plates in the series of those known.

The subject of shinju, or double suicide, was first drama- tized in 1703 by the playwright Chikamatsu Monzayemon, in a play called Sonezaki Shinju. Such dramas were called Shinju-mono, and became exceedingly popular, owing to the beautiful language in which Monzayemon described these tragedies, both with the public and other contemporary dramatists, and it is said their influence was such that the numbers of cases of double suicide increased to an alarming extent.

('captains courageous,' and nursery rhyme illustration, by blanche mcmanus; more from her tomorrow. sinbad illustration from edmund dulac. illustration from 'kling klang gloria' -- a book of childrens' songs -- by heinrich lefler.)

blanche can wait

it all began because i found a poster by blanche mcmanus in one of my books, and so i had to explore. there will be way more another day (maybe tomorrow), but in the meantime, perhaps you can see why this poster of hers provoked today's post. (i already had the ohara koson, which is also inspiring.)

katsu- shika hoku- sai did his manga in 1821, and jules- auguste habert-dys gave us this gorgeous illustration, inspired by the japanese work, some 80 years later.

hiroshige's birds flew cross the moon some time around 1800, and h. charles tomlinson's birds had to wait 100 years before they could gather up this girl's palm of crumbs.



and the same time frame occurred before the book's flock was set free (unknown designer); they waited 100 years after hiroshige's work.

nakamura hochu worked even earlier, circa 1700, but hoytema, dutch, was painting birds 150 years before he was born.

(for more birds, check out some of our earlier posts here, and here, and here. and be sure not to miss the charming post here.)

one more reminder of what went not so long before