Big Black HorseWalter Farley, il. James Schucker
1953, Random House
Walter Farley's classic horse novel The Black Stallion made over into a simple intro-to-reading board book for younger children, with bright color illustrations and darker, more realistic black-and-whites. It was re-released by Random House in 2007.
I've always liked these illustrations, but the scale is sometimes a little odd. Funny how the Farley books had a variety of illustrators who all seem to have grasped the essential high style and fantasy element of the books, and reflected it in their work. Even the out-sized stallion here fits right in - the books frequently insist on The Black's enormity, his vast physical presence, and how he's far larger than a normal Arabian.
Links
The Black Stallion website
James A. Michener Art Mueum on Schucker
2010 interview with Farley's widow
About the illustrator
James Schucker (1903-1988) was, like Farley, a long-time resident of Pennsylvania. He did magazine illustrations and advertising as well as book illustrating. In the event anyone goes looking for his circus books, fair warning, his clown illustrations are hugely disturbing.
Other books
Little Black, A Pony
Little Black Goes To The Circus
Little Black Pony Races
The Horse Tamer (dj for original 1958 hardcover)
The Big Book Of The Real Circus
The Book Of Clowns
The Big Treasure Book Of Clowns
The Wonder Book Of Trucks
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1 comment:
James Schucker illustrated the "Little Black" pony books too, didn't he? The horse images you show here reminded me of the big red horse in "Little Black, a Pony," a similarly outsized horse (the chestnut, that is, not Little Black :) and when you mentioned the creepy clowns, immediately I thought of "Little Black Joins the Circus" with the scary mocking clown on the cover. That book totally freaked me out as a kid...what a mean bunch of people, and that Snidely Whiplash ringmaster!!
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