Eric Ravilious: The Story of High Street - Hardcover

Powers, Alan; Russell, James; Richards, J. M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0955277728 ISBN 13: 9780955277726

Publisher: The Mainstone Press, 2008

Synopsis

Seventy years ago Country Life Books published High Street, a children's book of shops, featuring twenty-four exquisite lithographs by the English artist Eric Ravilious (1903-1942). Although the book was not a limited edition, the destruction of the lithographic plates during the Blitz meant that only 2000 copies were ever printed.

Subsequently High Street has become one of the most highly-prized artist's books of its time, indeed so great is the demand for work by Eric Ravilious that damaged copies are often taken apart and the plates sold individually as prints.

In this context the Mainstone Press is pleased to announce the publication, in early December 2008, of The Story of High Street. This new limited edition includes not only the original shop fronts and text of High Street but also two extensive essays and an eclectic range of illustrations, preparatory drawings and sketches, many of them published for the first time.

About this title

From the Publisher

In The Story of High Street we trace the journey Ravilious took to create his idiosyncratic masterpiece, discovering the people he met on the way and finding out what became of the shops themselves. Although we do not know whether Ravilious intended to create a historical document, he nevertheless left us with a brightly coloured snapshot of England on the eve of World War Two, a unique portrait of a nation of shopkeepers. Exploring the fate of his twenty-four shops, The Story of High Street offers an intriguing commentary on that nation's subsequent history.

From the Author

In a substantial and wide-ranging examination of the making of High Street, art historian Dr Alan Powers places the original 1938 book in historical context, giving new and significant insights into its conception, production and publication.

Initially Ravilious approached the Golden Cockerel Press with his 'alphabet of shops', but the book, with text by J.M. Richards, was eventually published by Noel Carrington, brother of the artist Dora Carrington and editor at Country Life Books. His enthusiasm for autolithography and children's books - he also launched the famous Puffin Picture Book series - made him the ideal publisher for High Street, although Ravilious also benefited from the invaluable support of the Curwen Press.

In the second essay, writer and historian James Russell describes a quest to identify and locate each of the shops depicted by Ravilious. These twenty-four businesses were, as J. M. Richards pointed out in the foreword to the 1938 book, all real places, but in many cases we are given only tantalising clues as to their name or location. So where were they, those shops that, more than any other, attracted the artist's attention? Do they still exist?

You can still buy cheese at Paxton and Whitfield, a shop that has changed little in appearance over the years, but in most other cases the quest has proved much harder, and more rewarding. Each shop, it soon transpires, is a gateway that will lead us into a new realm of historical, biographical or artistic discovery, as we follow the clues left by artist, writer and friends.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Mainstone Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0955277728
• ISBN 13: 9780955277726
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Mainstone Tim