Easton Press Howard Pyle books
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights
The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions
The Story of the Champions of the Round Table
The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood - Library of Famous Editions - 2004
Howard Pyle biography
Pyle was interested in drawing and writing from a very young age. He was an indifferent student, but his parents—particularly his mother—encouraged him to study art. For three years he studied at the studio of F. A. Van der Weilen in Philadelphia. Aside from a few lessons at the Art Students League of New York, this constituted the whole of his artistic training.Pyle continued illustrating for magazines. He also collaborated on several books, particularly in American history. He wrote and illustrated his own stories, beginning with The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood in 1883. This book won international attention from critics such as William Morris. Over the following decades, he published many more illustrated works for children, some of which are still in print today.
In 1889 Pyle and his wife sailed to Jamaica, leaving their children in the care of relatives. While they were overseas, their son Sellers died unexpectedly. This loss may have inspired Pyle's children's book, The Garden Behind the Moon, which is about death.
From 1894–1900 he taught illustration at the Drexel Institute. In 1900 he created his own school in Wilmington, where he taught a small number of students in depth. In 1906, he took up mural painting, which was popular for public art. He painted The Battle of Nashville in the state capitol of Minnesota, and two other murals for courthouses in New Jersey.
Pyle developed his own ideas in illustrating pirate dress, as few examples survived and few, if any, drawings of authentic pirate dress had been preserved. He created a flamboyant style incorporating elements of Gypsy dress. His work influenced the design of costumes for movie pirates from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp. It has been noted as highly impractical for working sailors.
In 1910 Pyle and his family went to Italy, where he planned to study the old masters. Suffering poor health, he felt depressed and drained of energy. After one year in the country, he suffered a kidney infection and died in Florence at the age of 58.
Major works
In addition to numerous illustrations done for Harper's Weekly, other periodical publications, and various works of fiction intended for children, Pyle wrote and illustrated a number of books himself.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is Pyle's synthesis of many traditional Robin Hood legends and ballads, making of them a cohesive whole. He toned them down, however, to make them suitable for children. For instance, he modified the ballad "Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham", changing it from Robin killing fourteen foresters for not honoring a bet, to Robin defending himself against a band of armed robbers. Furthermore, Pyle has Robin kill only one man—who shoots at him first. Tales in which Robin steals all that an ambushed traveler carried, such as "Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford", are changed so that the victim keeps a third, and another third is dedicated to the poor.
Pyle did not have much more concern for historical accuracy than did the original balladeers, although he did alter the name of the queen-consort in the story "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine" to Eleanor (of Aquitaine), which rendered it compatible historically with the king with whom Robin eventually makes peace (King Richard the Lion-Hearted).
Indeed, none of the tales in the Robin Hood book were Pyle's own invention, with some dating back to the late Middle Ages. Rather, his achievement was in linking them to form a unified, illustrated story. "The Adventure with the Curtal Friar", for example, ceased to be a stand-alone tale, but was made part of the book's overall narrative by Pyle in order to reintroduce Friar Tuck, because a co-operative priest was needed for the wedding of outlaw Allan a Dale (Pyle's spelling of the original Alan-a-Dale) to his sweetheart Ellen. Again, in the original "A Gest of Robyn Hode", the life of an anonymous wrestler, who had won a bout but was likely to be murdered because he was a stranger, is saved. Pyle adapted it so that the wrestler is given the identity of David of Doncaster—one of Robin's band in the story "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow". Several characters that had been mentioned in only one ballad, such as David of Doncaster or Arthur a Bland, are thus developed more fully by Pyle's novelistic treatment of the tales.
Pyle also wrote Otto of the Silver Hand, a story about the life of the son of a robber baron during the Medieval Period. In 1887 he wrote The Wonder Clock, a collection of twenty-four tales, one for each hour of the day. Each tale was prefaced by a whimsical verse telling of traditional household goings-on at that hour, illustrated by his sister Katharine. The tales themselves were written by Pyle based on traditional European folktales. A similar volume was Pepper and Salt, or Seasoning for Young Folk, which consisted of tales of traditional types for younger readers, also illustrated.
A number of pirate legends by Pyle, including some of his illustrations, were collected as Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates, published in 1921, ten years after his death. Few, if any, drawings of authentic pirate dress have been preserved, so Pyle invented a romantic view of pirate dress that has become iconic. Movie pirates from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp have worn similar costumes. This style is notable for its incorporation of stereotypic Gypsy elements, and its impracticality for working sailors.
In 1903, Pyle published Rejected of Men: A Story of To-day, a re-imagining of the story of Jesus as if it had occurred during early twentieth-century America.
Howard Pyle books
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883)
Within the Capes (1885)
Pepper and Salt; or, Seasoning for Young Folk (1886)
The Rose of Paradise (1888)
The Wonder Clock (1888), with his sister Katharine Pyle
Otto of the Silver Hand (1888)
A Modern Aladdin (1892)
Men of Iron (1892)
Twilight Land (1895)
The Story of Jack Ballister's Fortunes (1895)
The Garden Behind the Moon (1895)
The Ghost of Captain Brand (1896)
Washington (Text by Woodrow Wilson, then a history professor; published in 1897)
Story of the Revolution (Text by Henry Cabot Lodge; published in 1898)
The Price of Blood (1899)
History of the American People (Text by Woodrow Wilson; published in 1902)
Rejected of Men (1903)
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903)
The Story of the Champions of the Round Table (1905)
The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions (1907)
The Story of the Grail and the Passing of King Arthur (1910)
Stolen Treasure (1907)
The Ruby of Kishmoor (1908)
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates (A collection of previously published material, assembled in 1921)
Source and additional information: Howard Pyle