Noteworthy Illustrated Arthurian Books

by: Alan Lupack (Author)

Bawden, Edward, illustrator
 

Sir Thomas Malory's Chronicles of King Arthur. 3 vols. Revised with an Introduction by Sue Bradbury. Foreword by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Lino-cuts by Edward Bawdon. London: The Folio Society, 1982.

 

Beard, Dan, illustrator
 
Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. New York: Charles L. Webster, 1889.
 
 
Beardsley, Aubrey, illustrator
 
Malory, Thomas. The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvellous Enquests and Adventures The Achieving of the San Greal and in the End le Morte DArthur with the Dolorous Death and Departing out of This World of Them All. The Text as Written by Sir Thomas Malory and Imprinted by William Caxton at Westminster the Year MCCCCLXXXV and Now Spelled in Modern Style. With an intro. by Prof. John Rhys and a note on Aubrey Beardsley by Aymer Vallance. London: J. M. Dent, 1893. 2 vols. 1st ed. (Limited to 1500 copies; there were also 300 copies on Dutch hand-made paper, as well as the first issue, 12 parts in wrappers.)
 
Malory, Thomas. The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvellous Enquests and Adventures The Achieving of the San Greal and in the End le Morte DArthur with the Dolorous Death and Departing out of This World of Them All. The Text as Written by Sir Thomas Malory and Imprinted by William Caxton at Westminster the Year MCCCCLXXXV and Now Spelled in Modern Style. With an intro. by Prof. John Rhys and embellished with many original drawings by Aubrey Beardsley. 2d ed. London: Dent, 1909. (Limited to 1000 copies for the United Kingdom and 500 for America.)
 
Malory, Thomas. The Birth Life and Acts of King Arthur of His Noble Knights of the Round Table Their Marvelous Enquests and Adventures The Achieving of the San Greal and in the End le Morte DArthur with the Dolorous Death and Departing out of This World of Them All. The Text as Written by Sir Thomas Malory and Imprinted by William Caxton at Westminster the Year MCCCCLXXXV and Now Spelled in Modern Style. With an intro. by Prof. John Rhys and a note on Aubrey Beardsley by Aymer Vallance. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1927. (3d ed., ltd. to 1600 copies.)
 
Morte Darthur Portfolio: Reproductions of Eleven Designs Omitted from the First Edition of Le Morte Darthur Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley and Published in MDCCCXCIII Also Those Made for the Covers of the Issue in Parts and a Facsimile Print of the Merlin Drawing. With a Foreward by Aymer Vallance and a Note on the Omitted Designs by Rainforth Armitage Walker. London: J. M. Dent and Sons Limited, 1927. (Limited to 300 copies.)
 
 
Birmingham School of Printing
 
Malory, Sir Thomas. The Book of the Holy Grail from the Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory together with William Caxton’s Prologue. Birmingham, England: Birmingham School of Printing, 1934.
 
 
Braby, Dorothea, illustrator

The Golden Cockerel Mabinogion: A New Tramnslation from the Whie Book of Rhydderch and the Red Book of Hergest. Trans. Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones. Ill. Dorothea Braby. London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1948. (Printed in an edition of 360 copies.)
 
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Gwyn Jones. With Six Engravings in Colour by Dorothea Braby. London: Golden Cockerel Press, 1952. (Limited to 360 copies.)
 
 
Brickdale, Eleanor Fortescue, illustrator
 
Tennyson, Alfred. The Idylls of the King. London: Hodder and Stoughton, n.d. (The De Luxe edition, signed by Brickdale, was limited. to 350 copies.)
 
 
Cameron, Julia Margaret, photographer
 
Illustrations to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and Other Poems. 2 vols. London: Henry S. King & Company, 1875.
 
 
Clarke, Graham, illustrator
 
Balyn and Balan. Boughton Monchelsea, Kent: Ebenezer Press, 1970. (One of an edition of 100 plus 25 artist’s proofs.) (The 18 pp. of text and the title page are cut by hand on blocks obtained from the wood of a single apple tree and the 23 illustrations are cut from wood and lino. These are combined to form 16 folded sheets which are hand printed on Mellotex High White Cartridge using a Cogger [1820] printing press. The English Yew folio covers are made by Geo Coulter Ltd.)
 
Curtis, Dora, illustrator
 
Clay, Beatrice. Stories of King Arthur and the Round Table. London: J. M. Dent, n.d.
 
 
Crane, Walter, illustrator
 
Gilbert, Henry. King Arthur’s Knights: The Tales Re-Told for Boys & Girls. With 16 illustrations in colour by Walter Crane. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1911.
 
 
Dore, Gustave, illustrator
 
Hanson, Charles Henry. Stories of the Days of King Arthur. London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1887.
 
Pardon, George Frederick. Boldheart the Warrior and His Adventures in the Haunted Wood: A Tale of the Time of Good King Arthur. London: James Blackwood, [?1859]. [Preface dated Christmas 1858.]
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Elaine. London: Edward Moxon and Company, 1867.
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Enid. London: Edward Moxon and Company, 1868.
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Guinevere. London: Edward Moxon and Company, 1867.
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Vivien. London: Edward Moxon and Company, 1867.
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Idylls of the King. London: Edward Moxon, 1868. (With special india proof illustrations.) (“Enid,” “Elaine,” “Vivian,” and “Guinevere” bound together--each with separate title page.)
 
 
Eytinge, Solomon (Sol), illustrator
 
Lowell, James Russell. The Vision of Sir Launfal. Ill. by S. Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867.
 
 
Ferguson, Anna-Marie, illustrator
 
Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte d’Arthur. Ed. John Matthews. London: Cassell, 2000.
 
 
Flint, Russell, illustrator
 
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte Darthur: The Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table. London: Philip Lee Warner, 1910-11. 4 vols. (500 copies printed on handmade Riccardi paper and bound in vellum.)
 
 
Forbes, Elizabeth Stanhope, illustrator
 
King Arthur’s Wood: Written and Illustrated by Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes and with It the Tale Re-Told of Sir Gareth of Orkney and ye Lady of ye Castle Perilous. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., n.d. [1905]. (With 14 color and 14 tinted plates after water-colors and charcoals by the author. Elizabeth Forbes and her husband Stanhope Forbes founded the famous Newlyn School of Art in 1899.)
 
 
Ford, H. J., illustrator
 
Lang, Andrew, ed. The Book of Romance. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902.
 
 
Gere, Charles M., and Margaret Gere, illustrators
 
Ashendene Press. The Noble & Joyous Boke Entytled Le Morte Darthur . . . . Woodcuts by W[illiam] H[arcourt] Hooper and J[oseph] B[lomeley] Swain from drawings by Charles M. Gere and Margaret Gere. Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1913. Only 155 copies of this book were printed (145 on paper, 8 on vellum, and 2 on Japanese paper).
 
 
Gibbings, Robert, illustrator
 
(Limited Editions Club.) Malory, Sir Thomas. Le Morte Darthur: The Story of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table. Modernised by A. W. Pollard. Ill. with wood engravings by Robert Gibbings. London: The Golden Cockerel Press (for the Limited Editions Club, New York), 1936. 3 vols., boxed. (Limited to  1500 copies, signed by the illustrator; boxed.)
 
 
Godwin, Frank, illustrator
 
Merchant, Elizabeth Lodor. King Arthur and His Knights: Based on Morte d’Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co., 1927.
 
 
Harrison, Florence, illustrator
 
Morris, William. Early Poems of William Morris. London: Blackie and Son, 1914.
 
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. Guinevere and Other Poems. London: Blackie and Son, 1912.
 
 
Hassall, Joan, illustrator
 
Malory, Sir Thomas. Lancelot and Elaine: Being the Eighth to the Twentieth Chapters of the Eighteenth Book of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur with Engravings by Joan Hassall. Pigotts, near High Wycombe: Hague & Gill, 1948. (Limited to 200 copies, but David Chambers in Joan Hassall: Engravings & Drawings [1985], p. xliii, says that “the register of the red being faulty, only 25 or so were issued, and of these none were bound at the press.” On handmade paper.)
 
 
Ivanoff, Serge, illustrator
 
(Limited Editions Club.) Bedier, Joseph. The Romance of Tristan & Iseult. Trans. Hilaire Belloc and Paul Rosenfeld. Intro. Padraic Colum. New York: The Thistle Press for Members of the Limited Editions Club, 1960. (Limited to 1500 copies signed by the illustrator; boxed.)
 
 
Kappes, Alfred, illustrator
 
Lanier, Sidney, ed. The Boy’s King Arthur: Being Sir Thomas Malory’s History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. Edited with an introduction by Sidney Lanier. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1880. (Kappes was the first illustrator of The Boy’s King Arthur; the illustrations by N. C. Wyeth for the 1917 edition are better known and are found in all later editions.)
 
Tennyson, Alfred. The Idylls of the King. New York: Pollard and Moss, 1887.
 
 
King, Jessie, illustrator
 
The High History of the Holy Graal. Trans. Sebastian Evans. London: J. M. Dent, 1903.
 
Morris, William. The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems. London: John Lane, 1904.
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Elaine: An Idyl of the King. London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd./“Broadway Booklets,” 1903.
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Guinevere: An Idyl of the King. London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd./“Broadway Booklets,” 1903.
 
Tennyson, Alfred. The Morte D’Arthur: An Idyl of the King. London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd./"Broadway Booklets, 1903.
 
 
Lalau, Maurice, illustrator
 
The Romance of Tristram and Iseult. Trans. from the French of Joseph Bedier by Florence Simmonds. London: William Heinemann, 1910.
 
 
Lee, Alan, illustrator
 
The Mabinogion. Trans. Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones. Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, The Netherlands: Dragon’s Dream, 1982.
 
 
Mackenzie, [Thomas Blakeley], illustrator
 
Chaundler, Christine. Arthur and His Knights. London: Nisbet and Co., n.d. [1920].


Moser, Barry, illustrator
 
Barthelme, Donald. The King. Wood Engravings by Barry Moser. New York: Harper and Row/An Edward Burlingame Book, 1990.
 
 
The Moxon Tennyson
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Poems. London: Edward Moxon, 1857. (The Moxon Tennyson contains illustrations to Arthurian poems by William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Daniel Maclise.)
 
 
Paul, Evelyn, illustrator
 
The Romance of Tristram of Lyones & La Beale Isoude. Drawn from the Celtic French and illuminated by Evelyn Paul. London: Harrap, n.d.
 
Pitz, Henry, illustrator
 
Bishop, Farnham and Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. The Altar of the Legion. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1926.
 
Frith, Henry. King Arthur and His Knights. Garden City, NY: Junior Deluxe Editions, 1955.
 
MacLeod, Mary. The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights: Stories from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte D’arthur. Intro. by Angelo Patri. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1949.
 
Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1917.
 
 
Pogany, Willy, illustrator
 
Rolleston, T[homas] W[illiam]. Parsifal or the Legend of the Holy Grail Retold from Ancient Sources with Acknowledgment to the “Parsifal” of Richard Wagner. London: Harrap & Co., 1912. (Limited to 525 copies signed by Pogany.)
 
 
Priolo, Paolo, illustrator
 
Illustrations of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King: Produced Expressly for the Art-Union of London. London: n.p., 1863. (Priolo’s illustrations were the winning entry in a contest to illustrate the Idylls sponsored by the Art Union of London.)
 
 
Pyle, Howard, illustrator
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903.
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. The Brandywine Edition. Frontispiece and note by W. J. Aylward. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933.
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907.
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions. The Brandywine Edition. Frontispiece and note by Harvey Dunn. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933.
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of the Champions of the Round Table. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905.
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of the Champions of the Round Table. The Brandywine Edition. Frontispiece and note by Frank E. Schoonover. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933.
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910.
 
Pyle, Howard. The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur. The Brandywine Edition. Frontispiece and note by Stanley M. Arthurs. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933.

Tennyson, Alfred. The Lady of Shallott. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1881.
 
 
Rackham, Arthur, illustrator
 
Pollard, Alfred W., abridger. The Romance of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. Abridged from Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. London: Macmillan, 1917. (Limited to 500 copies signed by Rackham. There was also an American edition which was limited to 250 copies and which was not signed by Rackham.)
 
Haydon, A. L. Stories of King Arthur. London: Cassell and Co., 1910.
 
 
Rhead, George Wooliscroft and Louis Rhead, illustrators
 
Tennyson, Alfred. Idylls of the King. New York: R. H. Russell, 1898.
 
 
Rhead, Louis, illustrator
 
Knowles, Sir James. King Arthur and His Knights. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1923.
 
 
Sangorski, Alberto, illustrator
 
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. Morte D’Arthur. London: Chatto and Windus, 1912.
 
 
Satorsky, Cyril, illustrator
 
(Limited Editions Club.) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The original Middle English text as edited by A. C. Cawley, and a modern verse translation, with an introduction by James L. Rosenberg. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1971. (Ltd. to 1500 copies, signed by the illustrator; boxed.)
 
 
Shakespeare Head Press
 
Malory, Thomas. The Noble & Joyous Boke Entytled Le Morte DArthur Notwythstondyng It Treateth of the Birth Lyf and Actes of the Sayd Kynge Arthur: Of His Noble Knyghtes of the Rounde Table, Theyr Merveyllous Enquestes and Adventures Thachyevyng of the Sanc-Greall and in the Ende the Dolourous Deth: And Departynge out of This Worlde of Them All. Oxford: Shakespeare Head Press, 1933. 2 vols. (An edition of 370 copies from the unique copy of the edition by Wynkyn de Worde at Westminster in 1498, now in the John Rylands Library at Manchester. This edition reproduces the woodcuts from the 1498 Wynkyn de Worde edition of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur.)
 
 
Speed, Lancelot, illustrator
 
Holland, Rupert S., ed. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs and Co., 1919.
 
Knowles, Sir James. The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1912.
 
 
Talbott, Hudson, illustrator
 
Talbott, Hudson. Excalibur. New York: Books of Wonder / Morrow Junior Books, 1996.
 
Talbott, Hudson. King Arthur and the Round Table. New York: Books of Wonder / Morrow Junior Books, 1995.
 
Talbott, Hudson. King Arthur: The Sword in the Stone. New York: Books of Wonder / Morrow Junior Books, 1991.
 
Talbott, Hudson. Lancelot. New York: Books of Wonder / Morrow Junior Books, 1999.
 
 
Tenggren, Gustaf, illustrator
 
Sterne, Emma Gelders, and Barbara Lindsay. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. New York: Golden Press, 1962.
 
 
Thomas, G. H., illustrator
 
K[nowles], J[ames] T. The Story of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. London: Griffith and Farran, 1862. (The  first edition of Knowles’ popular retelling of the Arthurian legends. It contains a dedication “To / Alfred Tennyson D. C. L. / Poet Laureate / this attempt at a popular version of / the Arthurian legends / is by his permission dedicated, / as a tribute / of the sincerest and warmest respect.”)
 
 
Vlock, Sandra E., illustrator
 
 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Privately Printed, [?1974].
 
 
Walker, A. G., illustrator
 
MacLeod, Mary. The Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights: Stories from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur. Intro. John H. Hales. Illustrations from drawings by A. G. Walker, Sculptor. London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1900. (The first edition of Mary Macleod’s often reprinted retelling of the Arthurian stories.)
 
 
Ward, Lynd, illustrator
 
(Limited Editions Club.) Tennyson, Alfred Lord. Idylls of the King. Intro. Henry Van Dyke. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1952. (Limited to 1500 copies signed by the illustrator; boxed.)
 
 
Wyeth, Andrew, illustrator
 
Arthur Pendragon of Britain: A Romantic Narrative by Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. John W. Donaldson. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1943.
 
 
Wyeth, N. C., illustrator
 
Lanier, Sidney, ed. The Boy’s King Arthur: Being Sir Thomas Malory’s History of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table.  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1917.