Arthur Rackham: His Life and Work

I cannot pretend that in writing biographies I have always followed Butler’s rule. But it has happened like that more often than not. And certainly the subject of Arthur Rackham did ‘run right up against me’ and ‘insist upon being done’. I can even remember the day when it began to ‘hit me in the eye’. I was looking through a copy of Who’s Who of 1938, and I had savoured once again my favourite entry — that of a certain potentate who is recorded as being ‘an excellent horseman; a brilliant polo player; an excellent shot, and A.1 billiard player’ — when, turning over a few pages, I came to ‘Rackham, Arthur, R. W. S.’

There was nothing in the least egotistical about Arthur Rackham’s modest entry in Who’s Who, but the long list of books that he had illustrated served to remind me of my own childhood and of the great pleasure his work had given to me and to so many others, and it led me to wonder whether anything in the nature of a memorial volume existed. I found that it did not; and this book, which will be ​published twenty-one years after Rackham’s death, is an attempt to fill the gap.

Any merit it may possess is due largely to the encouragement of Arthur Rackham’s daughter, Mrs Barbara Edwards, who has not only lent me her father’s personal records, letters, photographs, press cuttings, etc., and made available his work for illustration, but has also generously set down her own recollections of her parents, which have guided me throughout, and taken endless pains to assist me in every possible way. I am also most grateful to Mr Bernard Rackham, C.B., the artist’s brother, for his kind hospitality and advice, and for permission to reproduce drawings; and to his sister-in-law Mrs Harris Rackham for similar courtesies. Rackham’s nephew and niece by marriage, Professor Walter Starkie and Dr Enid Starkie, have also placed me deeply in their debt, and I remember with gratitude the help of several other members of his family. Nor should I omit to mention the enthusiasm with which Mr Dwye Evans and Mr Hugh Williamson of Heinemann’s approached the project and set about the making of this handsome book.

The overwhelming response that I received to an inquiry in the Press showed conclusively that, despite changes of artistic taste and fashion, Arthur Rackham still enjoys a special place in the affections of two or even three generations, both in his own country and in America, and that his work is far from being forgotten. Those who have helped me by contributing recollections, allowing letters to be published, or in other ways, include Dr Arthur C. Hill, Mr W. E. Dawe, Mrs W. E. Wheeler, Miss Janet Seligman, Mr Humphrey Brooke (Secretary, Royal Academy of Arts), Mr James Laver, Dr Percy E. Spielmann, Miss Dorothea Braby, Mr George E. Heath, Mrs R. L. Crosley, Mr Harold Bourne, the Hon. Mrs Geoffrey Edwards, Mr F. C. Winby, Miss Margaret Andrewes, Mr Karl Kup, Miss Carolyn E. Jakeman, Mr Roland Baughman, Mr Kerrison Preston, Mr A. R. Redway, the Assistant Keeper of the Tate Gallery, ​Mr Owen Oliver, Mr Guy Phillips, Mr R. H. Ward, Mr Gilbert Foley, Mr Stacy Colman, Mr J. B. Oldham, Mr Gilbert Rountree, Mr Roger Lancelyn Green, Mrs Evelyn Bolckow, Miss M. Savage, Dr Eric G. Millar, Mr Sydney H. Pavière, Mr Wilfrid Robertshaw, Mr E. J. Laws, Miss Margaret Nelson (Assistant Secretary, Art-Workers’ Guild), Mr John C. Oberlin, Mrs Rachel Wolton, Mrs E. Williams Bailey, and Mr Meredith Frampton, R.A. I offer my thanks to them all, and to the many others who wrote to me.

I am most grateful to Mr Bertram Rota for compiling the check-list of the printed work of Rackham, and for his advice on the book-trade aspects of the subject.

The letters from Sir James Barrie; E. V. Lucas; and Bernard Shaw are published by kind permission of Lady Cynthia Asquith; the executor of E. V. Lucas; and the Public Trustee and the Society of Authors, respectively. Extracts from a letter written by Mrs Kenneth Grahame are published by permission of the executors of the late Lord Courtauld-Thomson. I hope for the indulgence of certain correspondents of Rackham (or their representatives) from whose friendly letters I have taken brief extracts.

For their courtesy in making available original drawings for reproduction I am greatly indebted not only to Mrs Barbara Edwards, Mrs Harris Rackham and Mr Bernard Rackham, C.B., but also to the Hon. Lady Nicolson, C.H., Mr William Mostyn-Owen, Mr Peter Lazarus, and the Trustees of the Tate Gallery. Moreover, I am most grateful to Messrs Hodder and Stoughton, Messrs Methuen and Company, Messrs Harrap and Company, and Messrs Constable and Company for co-operating with my own publishers to make it possible for a wide range of Rackham’s work to be represented in this book.