Wednesday, February 27, 2013

MR. BASS' PLANETOID Illustrations Louis Darling



The Saved From the Paper Drive blog remembers the 1958 children's science fiction book MR. BASS' PLANETOID written by Eleanor Cameron, with wonderful illustrations by Louis Darling.

"The novel followed The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (1954) and Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (1956). I loved these books as a child. The notion that 2 boys could build a spaceship out of tin cans and travel to outer space was very appealing!"

Louis Darling, Jr (1916-1970) was an illustrator and an environmentalist.

I know his work from the illustrations he did for HENRY HUGGINS, RAMONA as well as most of the books that Beverly Cleary wrote. He illustrated SILENT SPRING for Rachel Carson, on friend Roger Tory Peterson's recommendation. Louis also drew the pictures for his wife Lois Darling's books, and he was an author as well.

“I started to write my own books because it seemed to me that there was seldom enough cooperation between author and illustrator. The best way to get this cooperation was to become the author myself," he said.


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