Wednesday, August 31, 2011

More From The Prolific Provensens

Alice and Martin Provensen are two of my favorite illustrators. I have written about their work before. And my love for them stems from one of my favorite books from when I was a little girl, this one:

I am actually interested in collecting any and every one of their books, but I don't come across the vintage ones too often. So, I was delighted to find a copy of The Fireside Cook Book, written by James Beard and published in 1949 at a local thrift store recently!

I simply adore their whimsical illustrations:

Aren't they great?


The dust jacket, seen below, unfolds to become a poster that was meant to hang on your wall. I consider myself lucky that it HAS a dust jacket, even if it is in poor condition.
I had already picked up the cook book, and then I found another book , also illustrated by them! Leonardo Da Vinci:
And it's a pop-up book!



I was very happy, indeed to add these two to my book collection.

3 comments:

Tina Dawn said...

I just love the pop-up book! And the Child's Garden of Verses was always one of my favorite books growing up too. Thanks for coming to my rescue this morning with a post. I don't know if I have fixed the problem, but did get a connection finally. Love T

Twyla and Lindsey said...

Wonderful books, Heidi! Aren't the illustrations all wonderful?! Twyla

ellen said...

Thank you for this post! My mother had the Fireside Cook Book dust jacket framed and it hung in our dining room for more than 50 years.
I recently realized that the 1949 cookbook I had of mom's was the clue to how to get the dust jacket that my sister has now.
A little Googling and I found your blog. And I have a new secondhand and used-bookstore quest: Find another copy of the cookbook but with a dust jacket so I can frame my own copy.
Thanks, ladies. You've made my day.