Knave of Hearts

New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925. PARRISH, Maxfield; SAUNDERS, Louise. Autograph Note Signed. [No place, no date]. An autographed note, signed by Parrish on a 3 x 5 inch card. In his distinct hand it reads: "Dear Mr. Johnson:/As far as I can remember the books I/ have illustrated are about as follows:/ The Knave of Hearts: Louise Saunders./ Arabian Nights./ Italian Villas. Edith Wharton./ Mother Goose in Prose./ The Golden Age [and] Dream Days} Kenneth Grahame./ Poems of Childhood. Eugene Field./ M.P." And on the reverse of the note is his full name, signed "Maxfield Parrish" “Not until 1920 did [Parrish] agree to illustrate what was to become one of the most valuable children’s books ever published, Louise Saunders’s Knave of Hearts. Saunders was the wife of Maxwell Perkins, the editor of Scribner’s. They summered in Cornish, New Hampshire, and were friends with the Parrishes. In a letter to J.H. Chapin of Scribner’s, Parrish wrote on October 24, 1920: The reason I wanted to illustrate the Knave of Hearts was on ac- count of the bully opportunity it gives for a very good time making the pictures. Imagination could run riot, not bound down by the pe- riod, just good fun and all sorts of things. You must understand all this layout to be in gorgeous color. The landscapes back of the figures in the cover lining—a very beauti- ful affair illuminated by a golden late afternoon sun: castles, water- fall, rocks and mountains. Parrish relished working three years on the twenty-six paintings for Knave of Hearts. He built an elaborate castle model in his fully equipped workroom to use in the illustrations for the book...Many of the fixtures in the illustrations show handcrafted items from the Parrish household, such as elaborate hinges and a wonderful clocklike affair...that Parrish had built to let him know when the main house ran out of well water...Knave of Hearts, published in October 1925, was printed in rich colors on heavy coated paper. The illustrations were the highest quality reproductions that could be printed” (Alma Gilbert, Maxfield Parrish: The Masterworks, pp. 49-52). The final book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish and the most brilliant. HBS 67308. $3,500.