Illustrator Extraordinaire: Bechtel Fellow Enthralled by Arthur Rackham

These are the words of a young C. S. Lewis, who was deeply impressed by the “tender, flickering light of imagination”2 conveyed in the watercolor images by Rackham, the late nineteenth-century artist. Upon entering the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature at the University of Florida, I felt the same anticipation and excitement. There was a shelf of first-edition books, some signed by Rackham himself, awaiting my perusal. As a recipient of the 2016 Louise Seaman Bechtel Fellowship, I had been awarded an exceptional opportunity to explore the works of one of the most admired and influential illustrators of all time.