Lost book question: The Wild Swans

[pegkerr]

Thanks to jedmiller who pointed lemonlye to this site, where you can ask for help finding dimly remembered children's books. I'm definitely going to use this. I've been searching for the book I read as a child that introduced the tale "The Wild Swans" to me. I remember the illustrations so vividly, but I haven't been able to find the book anywhere, even when I went and asked at the Kerlan Collection. The problem is, I don't remember whether it was a stand-alone telling of the tale, or part of an anthology--and heaven knows there are a million Andersen anthologies. Eliza, I think, had reddish-blonde hair. There was one picture of her kneeling, sort of a 1/4 illustration with text around it (I think lower right-hand of the page). It shows her holding a leaf up, and a beam of sunlight was streaming through a hole in the leaf to touch her face.

In one picture she stands with her eleven brothers on the rock in the middle of the ocean. The brothers all look very much alike and are dressed in suits of white. They are all facing the viewer, and Eliza is in the center. That might have been a 1/2 page illustration??

I remember a picture of her dressed as a queen, on the king's arm, walking away at an angle from the viewer. That might also have been a 1/4 page illustration. I think her hair was bound up in a snood set with pearls. He was gesturing, showing her the room hung with green, with a completed shirt hanging from the ceiling.

The last picture I remember was the scene at the end, where Eliza is half-reclining in her brothers' arms in a faint. They are all dressed in white again. I think you see all the red roses on the wood pile behind her and I think you see the white rose. Can't remember if it is on top of the pile or in the king's hand.

I'll try this site, too--but does any one out there remember this book? I desperately want to find it. I had it as a child, growing up in the sixties and seventies.

Cheers,
Peg

Comments

on the quest

[sdn.livejournal.com]

hi, peg. i have asked one set of the many librarians and booklovers i know, so let's see what they come up with. will post if i find out!

Re: on the quest

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Cheers,
Peg

this may be it.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

one of my contacts said:

Oh, can I identify that book! Most of my writing in
the last several years has centered around turning the
Wild Swans story into a novel and I think what
prompted the idea was having read the version of it I
think you're remembering when I was a child. It's the
one illustrated by Susan Jeffers/written by Hans
Christian Anderson and it's a lovely book.

Unfortunately, it's also nearly impossible to find and
it's been out of print for several years (which is
strange because none of her other fairy tales have)
and so I check the library copy of it out on a fairly
regular basis.

I do own another copy of it with illustrations by
Helen Stratton and it's very nice but it's not the
same.

here it is on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0803704518/

and it turns out that we publish it, so email me if you'd like me to order you one from the warehouse.

Re: this may be it.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I'll check with the Kerlan Collection; if anyone has it, they do. But I'm not certain that this is it, because Amazon says that it was published in 1987 (unless it is a re-print of an earlier edition?) I was out of college by then. But the book I remember is something I saw as a child.

Peg

Re: this may be it.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

You know, Sharyn, is that offer still open to order this book from the warehouse? It may not be the right one, but I'd still like to see it anyway. Shall I send you a check? Let me know how much. Thanks. Peg