FROM THE MUNDANE TO THE MAGICAL: PHOTOGRAPHICALLY ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN'S BOOKS, 1854-1945 AND BEYOND

Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1999. hardcover. 8.75 x 11.5 inches. hardcover. xlii, 268 pages. This book is a bibliography of photographically illustrated children's books in the field of American and international juvenile literature from 1854 to 1945. It details books that were illustrated with original photographs or related-mechanical processes, and describes author and title, as well as provides an index of photographers, illustrators, and reproduction processes linked to specific books. The collection reveals a parallel of the evolving artistic trends and the history of photography through its organization in chronological order. These trends include salted paper print, the albumen print, the carbon print, the platinum print, the silver print, and the gravure print to the halftone, from black-and-white to color. Ranging from amateur to art, each style of the 1,421 books presented has resulted in the creation of an illustration to tell a story.



There are three levels of description throughout the bibliography which vary depending on the date of publication. Children's books published between 1854 and 1895 include full, detailed entries; those between 1896 and 1914 include slightly less detailed entries; and those between 1915 and 1946 include outlined entries. Although the main list of the bibliography ends in 1945, there is an additional list of children's books to 1995 with illustrations by recognizable photographers within the art community. A preface written by photographer, Duane Michals, is included and White has also provided an historical overview of the field of photographically illustrated children's books.



Mus White was born in Denmark and is the author of the novel Jasmine in My Hand (2006).