Sing a Song for Sixpence

by Brian Alderson

To commemorate the centenary of the death of the artist and illustrator Randolph Caldecott, Brian Alderson, noted historian of children's literature and children's book editor of The Times, has prepared for the British Library an exhibition designed to pay tribute to Caldecott's skills as a creator of picture books, which will run from October 1986. This book, incorporating a catalogue of the exhibition, with its many illustrations in colour and black and white, both demonstrates Caldecott's genius and provides a brief critical history of an important area of children's book publishing. Comedy, storytelling and graphic exuberance are all part of the great tradition of book illustration that runs from Hogarth and Rowlandson down to the present day, and Caldecott's special genius was to have embodied these qualities in the subjects he chose. Together with an appraisal of those who influenced Caldecott and the effect he had on later generations of illustrators, Brian Alderson explains the relationship between pictures and text, techniques (wood-cuts, wood-engraving, intaglio printing), the effect of industrialisation on the picture book and the subsequent development of book illustration.

112 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 1986

About the author

Brian Alderson is the chief children's book reviewer for the London Times and a lecturer and writer on the history of children's literature.