Images by Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone
In my childhood, we had a picturebook collection of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales illustrated by twin sisters, Anne and Janet Grahame Johnstone. I've
written about them here before
in the context of "The Red Shoes"--I had vivid memories of their illustrations of that story, particularly an illustration of Karen begging an executioner to cut her feet off. At the time I wrote that entry, I couldn't find that particular illustration online, but in the meantime, someone has uploaded it and a bu...
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CarolineFromConcord
(new)
Jun 04, 2021 08:36AM
Andersen was too dark for my brother and me. The only story we wanted our dad to read was "The Tinder Box." He kept saying he wanted to read the others to us, but we didn't like the others. Another memory: I read somewhere that Andersen visited the Dickens family once and that Dickens's children thought he was weird.
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How cool about the Dickens connection! I'm always tickled by things like that.I like a lot of Andersen (I really love The Snow Queen)--The Little Mermaid, The Nightingale, The Wild Swans--I liked all those. I didn't like The Little Match Girl. That was a bit too much pathos even for me. And I found The Red Shoes unreasonable--like, what's so bad about red shoes??? It seemed extreme. But most people I know share your feeling about him.
