Vera Bock’s rather minimalist illustrations of The Rubaiyat first appeared in an edition published by the Peter Pauper Press. Though undated, it is generally acknowledged to have been issued in 1949 (1a). It used FitzGerald’s fourth version, and is Coumans #151. The cover of the copy used here, whose design continues from the front, across the spine, and on to the back, is shown in Fig.1a, and the five illustrations are shown in Figs.1b, 1c, 1d, 1e & 1f. At first, I was not overly impressed by these, and it was only after seeing some of her other book illustrations (of which more presently) that I changed my mind and took a closer and much more interested look at them. It is to be noted that a somewhat annoying feature of the book is that it is unpaginated and the quatrains are unnumbered, though quatrain numbers in FitzGerald’s fourth version will be quoted in what follows.
Fig.1a would seem to related to quatrain 100, the curious face at the top of the front cover with a crescent ‘chin’ representing “Yon rising Moon that looks for us again”, the “us” being Omar and his Beloved in “this same Garden”, the garden extending across the spine of the book onto the back cover, as already noted above. I was struck by the curious style in which Omar is depicted – with a pointed nose and an exaggeratedly slim waist. (We shall meet another long–nosed slim–waisted gentleman in a turban in connection with the Arabian Nights later.) Note the signature of Vera Bock on the right–hand page of the book depicted in the bottom left–hand corner of the back of the cover, with what look to be musical notes on the left–hand page!
Fig.1b, which faces the opening verse, clearly relates to quatrain 1 (“Wake!” with rising Sun), quatrain 2 (literally “the Temple” with drowsy worshippers outside, rather than “the Tavern”) and quatrain 3 (“And, as the Cock crew &c.”)
Fig.1c faces quatrains 14 & 15 yet seemingly relates to neither. Rather it seems to relate to quatrains 11 (“With me along the strip of Herbage strown &c”) and 12 (“A Book of Verses underneath the Bough &c”), though the bough here appears to be a vine, with Omar (again with prominent nose!) holding a jug (or flask) of wine in one hand and holding a grape (?) in the other, and with no book of verse or loaf of bread in sight. Plus, unusually for Rubaiyat illustrations, his Beloved is wearing a yashmak (compare Fig.1a.)
Fig.1d faces quatrains 36 & 37 yet seemingly relates to neither. Rather curiously, it seems to relate back to quatrain 12, with Omar beneath the bough, with a jug of wine, a loaf of bread (?) and a book of verse, but with no sign of that key element, his singing Beloved! Omar – if this is him – is here hatless and turban–less, and looks nothing like the Omar in Figs.1a & 1c. Even more curiously, having decided that Omar’s face in this illustration could be no more than a cartoon, whilst researching this essay, quite by chance when I was on a train to London, I happened to see a man of middle–eastern appearance with a face that could easily have been a model for this cartoon!
Fig.1e faces quatrains 58 & 59, and clearly relates to the latter (“The Grape that can with Logic absolute &c”), as is shown by the two wonderfully drawn cartoon drunks to the lower right. The central plant is presumably a flowering vine with two symbolic hands, one holding a bunch of juice–dripping grapes, the other a glass of wine. The bee sipping from one of the flowers at the top adds a nice touch.
Fig.1f faces quatrains 88 & 89 yet seemingly relates to neither. Rather it seems to relate to the transience of youth and beauty (here female, and provocatively veiled ?), with the flowers falling off their stem on the right – compare quatrain 8 (“The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one &c”), with the transience of the rose in quatrain 9, and the vanishing of Spring with the Rose in quatrain 96 (“Yet Ah...That Youth’s sweet–scented Manuscript should close!”) The flower hovering above the veiled young woman is presumably telling her, “Look, for you are transient, just like me.”
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
Before going on to look at some of Vera’s other book illustrations, it is perhaps best if at this point we look at her life story.
Much available biographical information about Vera is contradictory and / or incorrect, or at least uncertain. For example, Joan Marter (ed.), The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art (2011, vol.1, p.300) has her born in St. Petersburg on 4 April 1905 and dying in New York in 1973, in which only the St. Petersburg is correct, as we shall see. There is a good Wikipedia article about her (2a), but it follows the Grove Encyclopedia for her date of birth, for example, and gives her year of death as 2006, at which time her actual age would have been 104. But unlikely as it seems, this turns out to be true! Accordingly, for the benefit of anyone wishing to follow the trail, I will indicate the sources of my information, much of it coming (thanks to the family’s extensive travels) from online passport applications, consular registration documents, and ships’ manifests, supplemented by newspaper clips and census records.
As is clear from numerous passport applications, Vera was born in St Petersburg on 1 April 1902, the daughter of an American international banker, Paul E. Bock, born in New York on 15 April 1863 (3), though of German ancestry, and his wife, a Russian concert pianist, Ida Bock, born in Kieff / Kiev (now in Ukraine) on 31 January 1869. They had been married on 26 June 1892. She had an older sister Margaret and an older brother George, both born in St.Petersburg, on 27 April 1893 and 20 October 1899 respectively, these dates being listed in a Certificate of Registration of an American Citizen filed by Paul Bock at the American Consulate in St. Petersburg in 1912. This document also tells us that her father had been stationed in St. Petersburg since 1883, but what it does not tell us is that Vera had (or appears to have had) another older sister, Florence. She is a mystery, for she appears only in the New York State Census of 1925, listed as the daughter of the by then widowed Ida (her husband, Paul, had died in 1923), and living with her brother George (now aged 26) and her sister Vera (now aged 22) at 330 West 108th Street, in Manhattan. Florence’s place of birth is given as England, and her age as 38, meaning she was born in about 1887 – that is, before Paul and Ida were married (1892), and while her father was stationed in St. Petersburg on account of his banking position (from 1883). Not only that, I could find no trace of her birth in England which might link her to either Paul or Ida or both, and indeed no record of her anywhere else other than in the New York State Census in 1925 – certainly she features nowhere in the wealth of passport applications and such like made by the family in St. Petersburg. Her mystery is further compounded by a useful obituary of Ida, which featured in the Maine newspaper, The Bangor Daily News on 26 July 1954 (p.13) (similar obituaries appeared in other newspapers):
Camden. July 25 – Mrs Ida Bock, 85, died at Lincolnville, Saturday. She was born in Kiev, Russia, January 31, 1869, the daughter of Edward and Minna Robinson Neumark.
She was a concert pianist and teacher and had been a resident of New York for 36 years and a summer resident at Lincolnville 10 years.
Mrs Bock studied under Anton Rubenstein and was a graduate of the Imperial Conservatory of Music at St. Petersburg. She had also played under Tschaikowski.
Surviving are a son, George Bock of Munster, Indiana; two daughters, Miss Vera Bock of New York City and Mrs George H. Kaestlin of London, England.
Now, a passenger list for the SS Orduna sailing from Southampton to New York on 29 March 1923 reveals that George H. Kaestlin, aged 30, a banker by profession (2b), born of Swiss parents in Moscow, and now a resident of London, gave as his destination address, “Mrs. P.E. Brock (mother–in–law) 276, Riverside Drive, New York City.” Brock is clearly a misprint for Bock, for this is the address of the family home given by Vera in a passport application in 1922. Furthermore, another passenger list for the M.S. Sibajak reveals that on 16 December 1938, George Henry Kaestlin and his wife, Margaret, embarked at Southampton bound for Lisbon, giving their home address as 15 Montpelier Place (actually Montpelier Row), Twickenham, London, where they were both still living at the time of the 1939 Register of England and Wales. Thus “Mrs George H. Kaestlin of London, England” was Vera’s sister Margaret. Since her mystery sister Florence is not Mrs Kaestlin, and since Florence does not feature as a survivor in the above obituary, it might appear that she had died some time before Ida, though, as with her birth, I could find no actual record of her death anywhere (though this could perhaps be explained by her dying abroad somewhere, for which no online records are available.) In short, Florence remains a mystery, and she features nowhere else in what follows (4).
These details may seem somewhat tiresome at this stage, but they will become very relevant to Vera’s later life, as we shall see. First, though, we need to backtrack to the Russian Revolution of 1917, as a result of which the family left Russia, via Siberia and China. In fact, Paul and Ida Bock, with children George and Vera (but not Margaret), sailed from Hong Kong to San Francisco aboard the S.S. Siberia Maru, arriving there on 30 January 1918. Their destination address was given as 120 Broadway, New York City. Vera was at that time aged 15 and had spent her whole life up until then in Russia, though it appears from passport applications that she had accompanied her father on business trips to England, France and Switzerland, so she was well travelled for her age. From a Consular Application for Registration made in St. Petersburg in December 1917, we know that Margaret was still with the rest of the family at that time, but the form indicates that she was then a Swiss citizen by marriage. Her husband is not named, but of course we know he was George H. Kaestlin, and it would appear that he and Margaret left Russia together, though not with Vera and the rest of her family – they escaped via Scandinavia, and thence to England (2b). In the 1921 census of England and Wales, they were recorded as living at 4 Marlborough Gate, Paddington, London. The census return tells us that they had a son, Jean Paul Kaestlin, aged 7 years 8 months, who had been born in St. Petersburg, and that they had a governess and four servants.
Passport applications in New York made in 1919 reveal that Paul Bock was to travel to England, France, Italy and Switzerland as the representative of the Peoples Industrial Trading Company of New York. The family went with him.
From an Emergency Passport application made by Vera at the American Embassy in Paris in March 1921, when she was 18 years old, we learn that she was in Switzerland from the end of 1919 to January 1921, and in France from 23 January 1921 until the issue of the passport, after which she was accompanying her mother through France to the British Isles and thence back to the USA. The two left Southampton for New York on 14 May 1921 aboard the S.S. Aquitania, though whether they had called in on the Kaestlins is not known. Of several passport photographs available, the one on this passport is the clearest (Fig.2a), her description telling us that she was 5 feet 2 inches tall, with brown eyes, brown hair and an olive complexion.
It is to be noted, though, that the details given on Vera’s various passport applications are not always consistent, for on a passport application made in New York in April 1922, for the purposes of visiting relatives in England (her sister Margaret ?) and travel in France and Switzerland, she stated that she had been in London and Paris from 1919 to 1921!
Yet another passport issued in New York on 26 April 1924 shows Vera off on her own to visit relatives in England (her sister Margaret ?), France and Switzerland. Her home address is given as 609 West 151st Street, New York, and her occupation as Artist. She returned to New York in October 1924, sailing from Southampton aboard the S.S, Orduna.
One final journey is of interest: on 25 June 1932 Vera arrived at Liverpool from New York aboard the M.V. Britannic. Her intended address in the UK was 31 Hannover Gate Mansions, Regents Park, London, which was then the address of George and Margaret Kaestlin. (It was the address recorded for them in a ship’s manifest dated 5 April 1929.)
Of Vera’s artistic training, dates and details are in short supply. The Grove Encyclopedia, for example, simply says that “she studied woodcutting, manuscript illumination, printing and photogravure in England for a year, supplementing her training in painting and drawing,” without giving any dates, still less specifying any particular Art School or College. Wikipedia adds that she also studied in Switzerland, though without specifying exactly where, what or when. From the above dates, if the 1921 passport application details are correct, we know she was in Switzerland for the whole of 1920, so that could mark her training in that country. On the other hand, if the 1922 passport application is correct, then we know she was in London and Paris from 1919 to 1921, so that could mark her training in England, perhaps whilst she stayed with the Kaestlins. But equally, the gap in the documentation from the second half of 1922 and all through 1923 might accommodate her training in either England or Switzerland. But all this is speculative, and nothing is known for sure at present. Certainly, by the time of the 1924 passport application and the 1925 New York State Census her occupation was Artist, rather than Student.
We are on much firmer ground when it comes to her book illustration, of course, for that is easily charted: her career began with illustrating Waldermar Bonsels’ The Adventures of Maya the Bee and Ella Young’s The Tangle–Coated Horse both published in 1929, then ran continuously, via such classics and well–known works as The Kasidah (1945) (5), The Arabian Nights (1946), The Rose Fairy Book (1948 ?), The Koran (1949), Love Poems and Sonnets of Shakespeare (1957), and Aladdin (1964), through to two rather eerie productions, Barbara Softly’s Magic People Around the World (1970) and Sorche Nic Leodhas’ Twelve Great Black Cats (1971). She appears to have illustrated no new books after that, though reprints of various of her earlier books continued to be published. We shall look at some of her book illustrations presently, but meanwhile, let us continue with some of her other work and her biography.
In the 1930s Vera did some notable posters. Fig.3a is a poster warning of the dangers of fireworks dating from 1937 and Fig.3b a “Don’t Fight Cancer Alone” poster of 1938 – both as topical today as they were then. Fig.3c is a Works Progress Administration poster dating from 1936 promoting the message that work leads to prosperity (this was in the period of the Great Depression, remember) and Fig.3d is a Federal Arts Project poster for its series on the history of New York City’s civic services, this being no.1 relating to the water supply. It dates from 1936. At this time Vera and her mother Ida were living together at 318 West 105th Street, New York, where they continued to live throughout the 1940s.
In 1943 she illustrated what was surely one of her most out–of–the–way books, though her Russian origins probably do much to explain it: The Two–Move Chess Problem in the Soviet Union, edited jointly by Buschke, Cheney and White, published in a limited edition of 300 copies. An advertisement for it in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on 16 September 1943 is shown in Fig.4. Also in 1943 she illustrated Katharine Gibson’s re–telling of the story of Dick Whittington, Bow Bells, the rear flap of whose dust–jacket carried the photo of Vera shown in Fig.2b. (This was one of five of Katharine Gibson’s books illustrated by Vera, incidentally.) In the 1940s, in addition to book illustration, Vera did magazine illustrations for the likes of Life and Coronet magazines, and in 1945 contributed one illustration to Mottoes Everybody Loves, a portfolio of five illustrated mottoes (four were by Arthur Szyk, a name familiar to most Rubaiyat collectors) distributed to readers of Coronet magazine in “appreciation” of their loyal readership. It is now a rare item. Its cover is shown in Fig.5a and Vera’s contribution in Fig.5b – her signature is along the edge of the parchment to the lower right. Also in 1945 one of her books (A Ring and a Riddle, a modern Russian fairy tale) was one of only twenty chosen to appear in a circulating exhibition of illustrated books for children. Another product of the 1940s was the dust–jacket Vera did for David Partridge’s Crimes of Passion (1947), shown here as Fig.6a, and which led one book dealer to describe Vera as a surrealist. If so, equally surrealist is the dust–jacket she did for Margaret Scherf’s crime novel, The Curious Custard Pie (1950), shown here as Fig.6b. (For the benefit of the puzzled, the custard pie was the suspected source of the poisoning of two people.)
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
In 1952 the Maine newspaper The Bangor Daily News (issue of 28 July, p.5), under the heading “Farnsworth Museum To Display Drawings, Books By Vera Bock”, wrote:
Rockland. July 27 – An exhibition of drawings and books illustrated and designed by Vera Bock will be displayed at the Farnsworth Art Museum here August 5 to 31, director Wendell Hadlock announced today.
Vera Bock who also works for Life and Coronet magazines, lives in New York but spends her summers at Lincolnville.
Books illustrated and designed by her have been included in the Fifty Books of the Year, American Institute of Graphic Arts; 90 Books Made for Children 1937–1941; International Exhibition of Illustrated Books, the Morgan Library 1946; and the Exhibition of Contemporary Book Illustration, Woodmere Art Gallery, Chestnut Hill, Penn., 1946.
Again, the Maine newspaper The Portland Press Herald (issue of 5 August 1952, p.9), under the heading “Museum To Honour Artist Vera Bock”, wrote:
Rockland, Aug.4 – Vera Bock, Lincolnville artist whose works illustrate many books will be guest of honour at a reception Tuesday afternoon during the opening of an exhibit of her originals at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland.
Vera’s summer residence at Lincolnville was close to Rockland, hence her familiarity with the Farnsworth Art Museum there. Also, as we saw earlier, in 1954, Vera’s mother died in Lincolnville.
Another exhibition of Vera’s work was held at the same venue from 6 August to 2 September 1957, and as we shall see, the Farnsworth Museum was to be the eventual repository for many of Vera’s original works many years later.
In the Canadian newspaper The Vancouver Sun on 12 December 1958 (p.5) appeared the self–explanatory advert for a book about Folk Blues music, shown here as Fig.7, another of Vera’s more unusual projects, the illustration arguably being of a somewhat surreal nature.
The 1960s seem to have been a fairly quiet time, with book illustration continuing, though her personal life was about to take an unexpected turn.
As noted above, George (sometimes rendered Georges Henri Kaestlin) was married to Vera’s sister, Margaret, and they had a son, Jean Paul (sometimes rendered John Paul.) Sadly, John Paul died in 1963, apparently as a result of falling from a roof, and Margaret died of cancer in 1969. As a result, George decided to move from England to Switzerland, a country which has featured quite prominently in the foregoing.
On 20 May 1973, having decided to donate some of her original book illustrations to the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature at the University of Minnesota, Vera wrote a letter to Miss Nelson, its curator, to say that the art–work was on its way, adding:
I have this past few years spent more and more time in Europe and the upshot of it is that I am moving there for good and shall henceforth live in Switzerland.
Thus, clearing out my studio in New York I came upon this batch of early illustrations. In looking over your letter I found you had asked for just those titles, to which I have added a few more (6), and I am very glad to let you have them for the Kerlan Collection. Most of my work over the years has been sold to collectors and the most recent I have decided to keep – possibly for a show in Zurich or Geneva. After June 1, if you should wish to communicate with me write to:
Vera Bock, 10 Haldenbach Strasse, Zurich 8006, Switzerland
With all good wishes to you and the collection –
Most cordially,
Vera Bock
Moving forward to 1980, some of her contributions to the Kerlan Collection had clearly been put on exhibition, for on 22 May of that year, she wrote to a Miss Hoyle:
I want to thank you for your letter and for sending me the photos of the very attractive display Miss McKeen arranged for my books and drawings.
I cannot remember what all (sic) Dr Kerlan had of mine – I know he always kept up with my “production” – but obviously it was all of early days, dating only to when this collection so abruptly and tragically came to a stop (7).
Since 1973 I have been living in Europe but I do keep in touch and word does come from here and there about my work. Always pleasant to hear.
So thanks again and all best wishes to you and your associates.
Most cordially,
Vera Bock Kaestlin
The name–change indicates that Vera had married her late sister’s husband, George H. Kaestlin, sometime between May 1973 and May 1980. Sadly, George died in 1981. As London probate records for 1982 tell us, “Kaestlin, Georges Henri, of Haldenbachstrasse 10, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland, died 18 February 1981.” Note the address – that given by Vera in her letter to Miss Nelson of 20 May 1973.
Vera was thus left a widow, and one with a huge collection of Russian stamps which had been built up by her husband throughout his life. His wish was that his collection was not to be split up and sold at auction, but donated to a suitable institution. Thus it came about that on 18 November 1984 the Georges H. Kaestlin Collection came to rest in the Philatelic Collections at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington D.C. In August 1985, Vera wrote a biography of her late husband which, many years later, after its rediscovery in a dusty box at the Smithsonian, was published in London Philatelist, in the May 2015 edition. It was to be one of the sources used in the Wikepedia article cited in note 2b.
Vera lived on for another 25 years after the death of her husband, dying in Zurich – incredibly as it may seem – on 11 November 2006, at the age of 104. Her death was recorded in the Public Notices section of The Times (London) on 29 October 2007 (p.65). It is shown here as Fig.8. (A similar notice was placed in The New York Times earlier that same month.) Incidentally, this is the only document I have seen which uses her middle name Madeleine and, oddly enough, the name of Vera’s sister Margaret is given on her death certificate as Margaret Cecile Kaestlin, this too being the only document I have seen which uses her middle name Cecile.
In 2016 Vera’s niece, Alice Tischler, the only surviving member of the Bock family, having been contacted by the Kaestlin family after Vera’s death, donated a large collection of Vera’s original book illustrations, dust–jacket designs and copies of books in which her illustrations appeared, to the Farnsworth Art Museum, the location of some of the exhibitions of her work mentioned above (8). It was Alice, too, who in 2017 provided researcher Kathleen Duxbury with some interesting background information: that Vera and her family caught the last train out of Russia before the Revolution started; that they had to leave behind most of their possessions, but expected to return to Russia fairly soon; that when it became clear that no such return was going to happen, most of their wealth was lost, save for Ida’s jewels, which luckily she had taken out with her, and on which the family survived for some time; and that, sadly, Paul E. Bock, Vera’s father, had died a broken man. Alice also said that Ida, had once played one of Tchaikovsky’s compositions whilst he conducted it, which recalls that mention of the composer in Ida’s obituary, quoted above. (Interestingly, Vera illustrated Claire Lee Purdy’s book Stormy Victory: the Story of Tchaikovsky, first published in New York in 1942.) Finally, Alice confirmed that Vera had indeed married her late sister’s husband, George (something I have not seen explicitly stated anywhere, though there is no reason why it shouldn’t have been.)
A large proportion of the books illustrated by Vera were for children or young people, as a result of which many of her illustrations, particularly those relating to simple stories, are skilfully done, but tend to be charming rather than interesting. Katharine Gibson’s re–telling of the story of Dick Whittington, Bow Bells, mentioned above, is one such. Fig.9a (p.77) and Fig.9b (p.107) are two examples, the latter being interesting as Vera seems to have had a fondness for cats, as we shall see again, and indeed each of the chapter numbers of Bow Bells is printed within the base of a pedestal on which stands an image of Dick’s cat, Night Watch (Fig.9c.)
But when the book to be illustrated had a fantasy or supernatural thread to it, then Vera seems to have taken the opportunity to ‘let her hair down’ and her illustrations become more interesting as a result. Legends and fairy tales, of course, come under this heading, and in one of her first books, Ella Young’s The Tangle–Coated Horse (1929), a collection of stories from the Gaelic Fionn Saga, the tendency is already evident. Two examples are shown here as Fig.10a (p.115) & Fig.10b (p.145). Again, in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales, published by the Peter Pauper Press in 1947, Fig.11a illustrates “The Happy Prince” and Fig.11b, “The Nightingale and the Rose.” (1b). In 1946, Vera clearly had fun illustrating an edition of Andrew Lang’s Arabian Nights – Fig.12a (p.106) and Fig.12b (p.209) are two examples. (The nose and slim waist of the turbaned figure at the lower right of the former remind me of Omar’s in Fig.1a, and the genie’s face in the latter reminds me of Omar’s in Fig.1d.) She had even more fun in illustrating an edition of Lang’s Rose Fairy Book (1948 ?) – Fig.13a (p.69) is an example of a coloured illustration and Fig.13b (p.193) an example of a black and white illustration. In both she uses playful cartoon figures, in the case of the latter to an almost surrealist effect. Finally, in Turkish Fairy Tales (1964) we find the illustrations in Fig.14a (p.21) and Fig.14b (p.33). The former illustrates the tale of “The Fish–Peri”, a maiden who had been transformed into a fish, and the latter, the tale of “The Bird–Catcher and the Crow”, shows the bird–catcher tickling the cheek of one of the lions guarding the entrance to a fairy palace – such things routinely happen in fairy tales, of course.
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
At this point we should note that Vera was particularly well placed to illustrate translations of Russian fairy stories, and a good example is Little Magic Horse, “a Russian tale by Peter Ershoff, translated by Tatiana Balkoff Drowne”. It was first published by MacMillan, New York, in 1942, and later by “Hutchinson’s Books for Young People”, London, in about 1946. Fig.15a (one of the Firebirds flying off, with, below, the hero John clutching the tail–feathers of another, and the Little [Blue] Magic Horse) and Fig.15b (the hero John listening to the Princess playing her dulcimer) are two good examples. (Other illustrated translations, well worth looking up, are M. Karazin’s Cranes Flying South, translated by M. Pokrovsky, published in 1931; and A Ring and a Riddle by M. Ilin & E. Segal, translated by Beatrice Kinkead, published in 1945 – the latter was mentioned above.)
Moving on to the supernatural now, though this genre is closely related to that of legend and fairy tale, I mentioned earlier two eerie books illustrated by Vera, Barbara Softly’s Magic People Around the World (1970) and Sorche Nic Leodhas’ Twelve Great Black Cats and Other Eerie Scottish Tales (1971).
Magic People deals with the world–wide beliefs that our lives are under the influence of generally invisible spirits which can take many forms – “the little people,” fairies, goblins, dwarves, mermaids, sirens, kelpies etc. Some could be helpful if approached in the right way, but others could be mischievous, even evil, and were at the root of life’s misfortunes, though they could sometimes be placated by offerings of one sort or another. Magic People is one of my favourite books illustrated by Vera, starting from its extraordinary, almost surrealist, dust–jacket, whose design extends from the front cover, across the spine, to the back (Fig.16a), via its frontispiece, which shows an impish dwarf running off after spilling ink over the illustrator’s drawing of the Manga–like girl on the back cover, and stealing her brush into the bargain (Fig.16b), to the kindly Bonito Maidens of the Solomon Islands, who could help fishermen make a good catch (Fig.16c.) In the course of the book we learn about the Kobolds of Germany: “If the Kobold was given his nightly bowl of milk, he would sing to the children. If not, he would push them over and hide their belongings.” Vera clearly had a sense of humour, for overleaf from the frontispiece is this dedication, initialled “V.B.”:
To all those who, at times, do forget to set out that nightly bowl of milk – the pictures in this book are dedicated.
It is clear at first glance that Vera’s illustrations for this book are very different in style to anything which has gone before. A note on the artist at the back of the book reads:
Vera Bock has long been one of the best known illustrator–designers, working in a number of different techniques. In her new book, Magic People Around the World, she used strong blacks over color halftones. When asked why this style this time, the answer: “Makes a good–looking book.”
Moving on now to Twelve Great Black Cats, this being the title of the first of the ten “eerie Scottish tales” in the book, this was one of three books illustrated by Vera for Sorche Nic Leodhas, the Gaelic nom–de–plume of LeClaire Gowans Alger – the other two were Sea–Spell and Moor Magic: Tales of the Western Isles (1968) and By Loch and by Lin: Tales from Scottish Ballads (1969). Fig.17a is the illustration for the tale of “Twelve Great Black Cats and the Red One” (p.2); Fig.17b that for “The Flitting of the Ghosts” (p.50); and Fig.17c that for “The Sea Captain’s Wife” (p.106). These illustrations, as we are told in a note about the artist at the back of the book, are “wash drawings – accented with charcoal, pencil, paint, and chalk.” Incidentally, on the dedications page of the book, Vera’s contribution is shown in Fig.17d. She was clearly a cat–lover, but more of that later.
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
Turning now to Vera’s illustrations of The Kasidah (1945) and The Koran (1949) (1c), in both cases it is not easy to see the relationship between the text and the illustrations. In The Kasidah each of the nine parts are prefaced by an illustration, Fig.18a is that for Part 1 and Fig.18b that for Part 2 – there is no hunter in Part 1 and no angel in Part 2. It has to be said, though, that the illustrations are skilfully done. Rather different in style are the illustrations for The Koran, though here the illustrations do seem to be generically connected to the text. Fig.19a (p.30) presumably shows the hand of God as the Creator of the Heavens (note the signs of the zodiac, albeit out of order!), the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and Man (9a). Fig.19b (p.173) seems to represent the delivery of the Koran (or Quran as it now is) to Mohammed through the agency of the Angel Gabriel (the quasi–Arabic letters above the reclining figure at the bottom left may be intended to spell Mohammed, in fact.) (9b).
Just when you think you’ve seen all of Vera’s different styles, there are often surprises still in store, and we turn now to P. Alston Waring’s book The Peacock Country (1948), a book of tales from India depicting the interactions between men and animals so prevalent there. Fig.20a is the frontispiece (it relates to the story “The Bowl of Rice”) and Fig.20b (p.45), which relates to the story of “The Maharani.” This book, I have to say, is another of my favourite books illustrated by Vera.
Likewise, The Love Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare (1957) comes as another nice surprise. Fig.21a illustrates these lines from Sonnet 66: “Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, / Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.” The picture is loaded with symbolism, not all of it clear. The sonnet details Shakespeare’s disillusionment, on many levels, with the state of the world around him (“all these [things]”.) The hour–glass with a skull in the lower half is clear enough in its association with Time and Death, but the main part of the picture appears to be a gnarled old tree, surmounted by a laurel–wreathed balloon (?) on a stick, wearing a ruff, and with a richly embroidered glove hanging over one branch. In his own lifetime Shakespeare was regarded as merely one playwright among many, so this may be Vera’s attempt to depict how Shakespeare saw that laurels were not always given to those who deserved them. The grinning rat is presumably here a symbol of greed and dishonesty, so prevalent in the world, and the inverted crucifix suspended from an arm–like branch of the tree, the topsy–turvy nature of the world, in which, contrary to the Christian ideal, good and justice do not always prevail. Note also the black kneeling figure pushing the ‘tree’ and the drawing hand being held back by what looks to be a mouse! Interpret them as you will. In comparison, Fig.21b is more straightforward. It illustrates the lines “When my love swears that she is made of truth, / I do believe her, though I know she lies...” These lines are credited to the collection of poems known as “The Passionate Pilgrim”, which is true, but they are better known as being from Sonnet 138, one of the so–called Dark Lady Sonnets. The untruthful lady herself peers out from behind a curtain, with her Shakespearean lover depicted as an equally untruthful monkey with a mirror: each is inclined to put up with the untruthfulness of the other, as their relationship benefits both.
[The illustrations can be browsed here.]
We have already seen Vera’s fondness for cats in Fig.9c and particularly Fig.17d, so one imagines that Vera was delighted to illustrate Eileen O’Faolain’s King of the Cats, published in New York in 1942 (the original edition, published in Dublin in 1941, was illustrated by Nano Reid.) Its wonderful dust–jacket is shown in Fig.22a and three of its equally wonderful illustrations in Fig.22b (Ch.1 – “Kitty the Cats”), Fig.22c (Ch.4 – “The Fairy Circus”) and Fig.22d (Ch.7 – “Feast and Farewell”). An Irish fantasy tale for young readers, it tells of the restoration to his throne of Balgeary, the rightful King of the Cats, following the death of the usurper, Balgoury, thanks to the intervention of two boys, Nedeen and Garret. It involves not just the Fairy Circus of Fig.22c, but also cats morphing into humans and vice versa, a flying fairy horse called Mickey Joe, a leprechaun called Con Cawm, a talking fish known as the Salmon of Knowledge, and a battle between the feline supporters of the rightful King and those of the late usurper, in which the latter are defeated, though each cat having up to nine lives prolongs things, of course! Fig.22b shows the regal Balgeary in exile at the home of Nedeen and his (fairy?) grandmother, Kitty the Cats, thus called because she has so many cats. Figs.22a and 22d show Balgeary rightfully enthroned, the latter with Nedeen in an oversized robe, Con Cawn the leprechaun dressed as a jester, and the fairy horse Mickey Joe wearing a straw hat. (Note also the kitten, more interested in playing with a tiny ball under the throne, than in the coronation itself.) I cannot resist including an image of the title page, with its skilfully stylised cat’s face (Fig.22e), and mentioning that the half–title page has a tiny little scampering mouse in its bottom right–hand corner. Finally, the dedication at the front of the book reads: “To My Cat Serka, who, with all the dignity of his eighteen and one half years, so graciously, sometimes, consented to pose for them – the pictures in this book are respectfully dedicated.” It is signed “V.B.” and has a paw–print below it. [Browse here.]
I think I would have enjoyed meeting Vera Bock.
Note 1a: Sean Donnelly & J. B. Dobkin in their book The Peter Pauper Press of Peter and Edna Beilenson, 1928–1979: a Bibliography and History (University of Tampa Press, 2013), #448 (miniature) & 450, date this issue, with the illustrations in blue, to [1949]. A later edition (#451), with illustrations in green, and a cover & dust–jacket design in blue, yellow & white, is dated by them to [1961].
Note 1b: Donnelly & Dobkin #151 date it as [1947].
Note 1c: The Kasidah and The Koran were both published by the Peter Pauper Press. Donnelly & Dobkin give dates for two editions of The Kasidah as [1945] for #259 & [1950?] for #260. The Koran as #262 is dated as [1949].
Note 2a: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Bock
Note 2b: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Henri_Kaestlin
Note 3: Filed with his passport application of 1912 is an official letter from the American Embassy in St. Petersburg, explaining his prolonged absence from the USA as the result of his important banking role. The key part reads:
He is one of the directors of the Russo–Asiatic Bank, the one designated by Russia to represent them in the Consortium of the six Powers. He expects to go to China in the near future... Mr Bock is a valuable source of information for this Embassy and I need not point out the fortunate circumstances of having an American on the directorate of the Russian fiscal agents in China.
Needless to say, there was no problem in renewing the passports for him and his family.
Note 4: A broad sweep of birth & baptism records on ancestry.co.uk for a Florence Bock born in England in 1887±5 years reveals only one: Florence Caroline Bock, born in Hampstead, London, on 28 March 1886, the daughter of John Bock and his wife Elizabeth Mary Bock. But even if this family were related to Paul & Ida Bock, and Florence became Vera’s ‘sister’ by adoption for some reason, it is difficult to see why she wasn’t with the rest of the family in Russia – by the time the family arrived in the USA in January 1918, she would have been 31 years old.
Note 5: Sir Richard Burton’s The Kasidah of Haji Abdu will be better known to readers of FitzGerald’s Rubaiyat than to general readers. It was basically Burton’s attempt to write an ‘oriental’ classic to rival FitzGerald, his Haji Abdu being the equivalent of FitzGerald’s Omar, though Haji Abdu was a fictional character, whereas Omar Khayyam was an historical one, and Burton’s verses were his own invention, whereas FitzGerald’s were a translation, though admittedly a free and edited one. The Kasidah never did rival The Rubaiyat in popularity, though the fame of its author ensured its publication in many editions, many of which were illustrated. See Frank McLynn, Burton: Snow upon the Desert (1990), p.320–5. See also Appendix 5. Perhaps not surprisingly, The Rubaiyat and The Kasidah have actually been published together in the same volume – by the Willey Book Company of New York, in 1944.
Note 6: The ones asked for were Tangle–coated Horse (1929), Adventures of Maya the Bee (1929), Oak Tree House (1936) and Girl who would be Queen (1939). The “few more” were Metten of Tyre (1930), Cranes Flying South (1931) and Cinders (1939). A catalogue of them can be found at:
https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/4/resources/5490 .
Note 7: Dr. Irvin Kerlan was an alumnus of the University of Minnesota who had built up his own huge collection of children’s literature. The word “tragically” in Vera’s letter refers to his death in a traffic accident in 1963, aged only 51.
Note 8: For details see:
https://collection.farnsworthmuseum.org/objects/5793.
Note 9a: The illustration arguably conflates a number of verses in the Quran – see, for example, Surah 7.54, Surah 10.5, Surah 15.16, Surah 25.54 & 59.
Note 9b: This illustration relates as much to Islamic tradition as the Quran itself, Surah 97 coming the closest to it, its verse 4 involving delivery by a Spirit, tradition taking this Spirit to be the Angel Gabriel. See also Surah 12.1–3 & Surah 44.2–6 for other somewhat vague references to the miraculous origins of the Quran.
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I must thank the following people for their help, in various ways, in putting together this essay:
Pam Peirce of San Francisco, who is the granddaughter of Katharine Gibson, five of whose books Vera illustrated – hence her keen interest in Vera.
Kathleen Duxbury of the National New Deal Preservation Association, Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose interest in the posters done by Vera led her to research the artist behind them, and to search out Alice Tischler.
Caitlin Marineau, assistant curator at the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota, for supplying scans of Vera’s letters to the Kerlan Collection.
Jane Bianco, curator at the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine.
Jim Sarantidis of Grendel Books, Springfield, Massachusetts, for permission to use his image of the dust–jacket of King of the Cats, used in Fig.22a.
I must also thank Joe Howard, Sandra Mason and Bill Martin for proof–reading this article, and making various useful suggestions and observations.
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