King Arthur & His Knights

      

"As he took it the hand & arm vanished into the water."
This is the frontispiece for Maude L. Radford Warren's fine retelling of the key
Arthurian legends in King Arthur & His Knights (Chicago: Rand McNally,
1916). The first edition of Warren's book was 1903, but the 1916 edition adds eight
beautiful full color illustration plates by J. Allen St. John, best remembered as Edgar
Rice Burroughs' favorite artist. A sample of these plates are shown in this gallery.
There are, additionally, a great many art nouveau illustrations in black & white
by Walter Enright & it's a toss-up whether Enright or St. John is greater.

      

"She wore a heavy sword."
A PreRaphaelite influence can be detected in J. Allan St. John's rendering
of the Loathly Maid from whom Sir Balin obtained his accursed sword.

   

"At the very first stroke, Sir Lionel Fell."
Young Sir Lionel was one of several knights defeated in jousting contests by Sir
Turquaine, who stored his defeated opponents in a dungeon. In good time,
Sir Lancelot was the undoing of the cruel knight.

      

"Sir Lancelot rode sadly away, & did not look up at Elaine."
If any knight of the Round Table leaves so powerful an impression as King Arthur
himself, it would be Sir Lancelot, the friend & betrayer of Arthur, & whose
purity & sorrows render him a markedly complex, more-than-mythic figure.

 

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