Drawn to Enchant

Betsy Beinecke Shirley, one of the great collectors of American children’s literature, gathered a peerless collection of books, original illustrations, manuscripts, and ephemera. This gorgeously illustrated book presents over 200 selected original artworks from the enchanting collection she bequeathed to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University.

Guiding the reader on a lively tour through the stages of childhood reading, this volume begins with ABCs and nursery books. It continues through adventure stories, magazines, and more, then concludes with a miscellany section of wonderful odds and ends. The delightfully varied images demonstrate how children’s books evolved, from the nation’s first days of independence to our own times. Artists whose works are represented include many beloved favorites, among them Ludwig Bemelmans, Maurice Sendak, A. B. Frost, Wanda Gag, Peter Newell, N. C. Wyeth, Tony Sarg, Robert Lawson, and Johnny Gruelle.

From variant illustrations for Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are to little-known sketches for nineteenth-century periodicals that delighted generations of children, Drawn to Enchant offers a unique opportunity to study the reading lives of children throughout American history. Just as important, it invites each reader to recollect favorite images from the treasured books of his or her own childhood.

Timothy Young is curator of the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children’s Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. He is the author of My Heart in Company: The Work of J. M. Barrie and the Birth of Peter Pan, the catalogue of a major exhibition on Barrie in 2005.