ARTHUR RACKHAM: A Life With Illustrations ...

ARTHUR RACKHAM: A Life With Illustrations by James Hamilton (Pavilion/Trafalgar Square: $24.95, 199 pp.). Hamilton traces the life and career of the celebrated children’s illustrator and water colorist in this highly readable biography. Although he created fanciful worlds peopled with fairies, goblins and half-human trees, Rackham kept a charming innocence: Even his most dire monsters never feel really evil. Most readers will want this book for the excellent reproductions of Rackham’s sketches and finished illustrations for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Rip Van Winkle,” “The Ring of the Nibelungen,” et al., rather than Hamilton’s intelligent text.