# Pauline Baynes 1922-2008



## Eledhwen (Feb 1, 2010)

I thought that Pauline Baynes deserved a thread in this sub-forum.







I will start with a link to a beautiful and sensitively written Obituary for Pauline by someone who was her personal friend.


----------



## Eledhwen (Feb 1, 2010)

*Taken from FOOLOFATOOK's post on Bilbo's Last Song*



> Why do you think Tolkien always prefered Pauline Paynes to other illustrators?



Off the top of my head, here's what I remember about the Baynes/Tolkien connection. The first work she illustrated for Tolkien was Farmer Giles of Ham- Tolkien chose her to illustrate the book after he saw some mock medieval drawings she had done, and thought that her style was appopriate for Giles. It might be worth remembering here that Tolkien's only other piece of fiction at the point was illustrated by JRRT himself, and study of his letters, as well as some of the comments in Douglas A. Anderson's brillant The Annotated Hobbit shows how generally picky and obsessive Tolkien was about illustrators. I think that Tolkien found in Baynes someone who he trusted to illustrate his work, and from then on saw no point in employing anyone else. Just for the record, Baynes is probably more famous for her illustrations of the Narnia books- a job that she earned based on Lewis's appreciation of her work with Giles.


----------



## ltnjmy (Feb 1, 2010)

*Re: Pauline Baynes 1922-1008*

Thanks so much for posting this thread !


----------



## Eledhwen (Feb 3, 2010)

Illustrators are the unsung heroes of storytelling. When children are reading "beyond their level" (a practice Tolkien approved of), pictures confirm their understanding of what they have read and help them forge the link between hard copy and imagination.

I can't remember what age I was when I last put a book down because it had no pictures in it (I was under 10 - I think!); but how many good stories did I miss because no-one had thought to employ a Pauline Baynes?


----------



## Firawyn (Feb 11, 2010)

I found this essay eons ago, but I thought I'd post it here. I didn't know Pauline Baynes has passed away...I guess I just assumed she had, but didn't put much thought into it. This essay was written by Charlotte Cory, titled _"The Woman Who Drew Narnia: Pauline Baynes"_.



> [FONT=&quot]ALTHOUGH I was only seven years old at the time, I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news of President Kennedy's assassination. I was standing by the kitchen sink, already weeping at the - for me - more terrible news that day: C S Lewis, author of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, had died. Having braved the mothballs of many an elderly relative's musty wardrobe in hope of finding the snowy realms of Narnia, I knew that the only way to get there was through the books. Now there would never be any more. [/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
> 
> [FONT=&quot]
> [/FONT]
> ...


----------

