The Imagination in Grief

The year was 1889. The thirty-six-year-old artist and illustrator Howard Pyle had burst on the artistic scene in the 1870s with illustrations in popular journals such as Harper’s Weekly. His book career took off in 1883 with The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, which was hailed as a work of genius at the time and soon labeled a classic. Other books followed. In 1888, Otto of the Silver Hand had appeared to acclaim as well, marking a new development in the children’s literature of the day with its realistic historical approach to the difficulties and sorrows of his medieval setting.