Bearskin by Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle is best known as the writer of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, a book that’s widely considered to be the definitive compilation of the Robin Hood ballads into a cohesive whole. Though that’s his most famous work, he also wrote two anthologies of fairytales: Pepper & Salt and The Wonder Clock. This adaptation of Bearskin is from the latter collection, and Pyle’s love of fairytales and legends is apparent, for it reads like a composite tale of several other familiar stories… All in all, this is a rather strange story, with even stranger illustrations (with regard to style), but together Pyle’s lyrical prose and Hyman’s whimsical pictures somehow make it work. Read the rest.
