de Grummond Collection

McCain Library and Archives
University Libraries
University of Southern Mississippi



ERNEST SHEPARD PAPERS

Collection Number
Collection Dates
Collection Volume
DG0886
1927-1972
.60 cu.ft. (1 box)

Biographical Sketch | Scope & Content | Related Collections | Series & Subseries | Box Inventory

Provenance

Artwork for Susan, Bill, and The Saucy Kate purchased in 1973; other material received from Shepard between 1966 and 1970.

Restrictions

Non-circulating; available for research.

Copyright

This collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U. S. Code). Reproductions can be made only if they are to be used for "private study, scholarship, or research." It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials, other than that noted above.


Biographical Sketch

Ernest H. Shepard was born on December 10, 1879 in London, England. His interest in art developed early and was encouraged by his father, an architect, and his mother, the daughter of a distinguished watercolor painter. Shepard attended St. Paul's School in London until the age of 16, when he left to study at Heatherley's Art School. He went on to study art at the Royal Academy School from 1897 to 1902, receiving a Landseer Scholarship in 1898 and the British Institution Prize in 1900. He exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy in 1902.

In 1904 Shepard married Florence Chaplin, also an art student; they had two children. He worked as an artist and magazine illustrator until the outbreak of World War I, when he received a commission in the artillery. He rose to the rank of major and received the Military Cross. In 1921 he was elected to the Punch editorial table, a position he held until the 1950s.

After his wife died in 1927, Shepard and his children moved to London. From the mid 1930s to the late 1940s, Shepard drew the `big cut,' the weekly political cartoon in Punch. He remarried in 1944, and in 1955 he and his wife Norah moved to Lodsworth, Sussex, where they lived until the 1970s. Shepard died in March 1976.

Shepard first came into prominence as a children's illustrator when his pen and ink drawings brought to life A. A. Milne's characters in When We Were Very Young, Winnie-the-Pooh, Now We Are Six, and The House at Pooh Corner, published between 1924 and 1928. In the 1930s he illustrated a new edition of Kenneth Grahame's classic, The Wind in the Willows and several other books by this author. During his seventy-year career as an illustrator, he illustrated more than thirty books for children and adults, working primarily in pen and ink, as well as water color and gouache. After leaving Punch, Shepard wrote and illustrated two autobiographical works, Drawn from Memory and Drawn from Life, and two children's books. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he finished complete sets of color illustrations for both Winnie-the-Pooh and Wind in the Willows, filling in the original line cuts with watercolors.

Shepard's drawings have been exhibited frequently. In 1969 he donated 300 Pooh illustrations to the Virginia and Albert Museum, and in 1974 he mounted a showing of 100 cartoons at the University of Kent. He received the University of Southern Mississippi Silver Medallion in 1970, and the Order of the British Empire in 1972. Four books illustrated by Shepard won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award: The World of Pooh and The Wind in the Willows, 1958; The World of Christopher Robin, 1962; and The Reluctant Dragon, 1963.

Sources:


Scope and Content

The collection contains correspondence from Shepard to the de Grummond Collection (1966-1970) and original illustrations for three books, ranging from black and white drawings of the early Pooh books to color sketches produced in the 1960s. There also is a dust jacket and unbound text of another book that he illustrated. Material for the four books is arranged alphabetically by title. The collection contains material relating to the 1970 USM Children's Book Festival, including a photograph, and Shepard's sketches for the 1969 de Grummond Collection Christmas card.

For Now We Are Six (1927), A. A. Milne's whimsical collection of poems in the Winnie-the-Pooh series, the collection contains Shepard's rough graphite sketches for the poem "The Little Black Hen" and a drawing for the dust jacket, done in pen and ink, graphite, and transparent watercolors. The collection includes the dust jacket and unbound text of The Reluctant Dragon (1938), another Kenneth Grahame title illustrated by Shepard. There is a complete set of the final illustrations for Susan, Bill and the Saucy Kate (1956?), a story about two children on holiday at the seashore who discover a mysterious old woman. Included are a color illustration for the frontispiece, six pen and ink illustrations, and a color paste-up with text and illustration for the cover. For Wind in the Willows, the collection contains a color sketch for the cover that Shepard produced in 1969, while working on the color edition of this classic tale of Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger.




Series and Subseries


A. Correspondence (1966-1970)

B. Books (1927-1969)

C. USM Children's Book Festival (1970)

D. Christmas Card (1969)


Box Inventory


    Box/Folder

A. Correspondence

1/1 To the de Grummond Collection, 1966-1970, 5 items.

B. Books

NOW WE ARE SIX by A. A. Milne, with decorations by Ernest H. Shepard (London: Methuen, 1927; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1927). 1/2 Sketches, graphite, for "The Little Black Hen," pp. 60-64, 1 item. Sketch, pen and ink, graphite, and transparent watercolors, for dust jacket back. THE RELUCTANT DRAGON by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard (New York: Holiday House, 1938). 1/3 Proof, unbound, with dust jacket. SUSAN, BILL, AND THE "SAUCY KATE" by Malcolm Saville, illustrated by Ernest Shepard (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1956). 1/4 Illustration, ink and transparent watercolors, for frontispiece. 1/5 - 6 Illustrations, pen and ink, 1/5 p. 21 - "She knew she must wait for Aunt Em" p. 35 - "`Nothing much to worry about'" p. 63 - "`What are you doing here?'" p. 81 - "`The Kate has gone.'" 1/6 p. 101 - "They saw the Water Witch" p. 115 - "Miss Pettiford's eyes opened" Paste-up of cover with text and illustration, pen and ink and transparent watercolors. THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard (London: Methuen, 1971). 1/7 Illustration "for cover," black ink and transparent watercolors, 1969.

C. USM Children's Book Festival

1/8 Sketches for USM Medallion, original and photocopy, 6 pp.; program; photograph.

D. Christmas Card, 1969

1/9 Sketches for de Grummond Christmas Card, pen and ink, 1 item. Printed card.


Processed: April 1991
Revised: July 2001

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