Arthur Rackham

Fairie Tales Arthur Rackham

Publisher Marketing: It all started with "Once upon a time..." and always ended with "Happily ever after," and the in between spaces were filled with jolly tales of good deeds and bad goings on, all of which had some sort of moral o' the story, and some didn't seem to say much of anything other than not to anger the gods or the fairies or the kings and queens, lest they put you to sleep for good long ages. My grandmother would set us on her lap with care, open the book between us, and read with her high lilting voice those words which we came to know and to love, "Once upon a time..." and "Happily ever after." These became such important words to us, and in time, we came to read them to our own children, and as good years pass, perhaps our children will read the same storys to our grandchildren. There is a time for twice told tales, and any time will suit me just fine. Some time is only half better. No time is no good at all. Read often, read often. There is nothing more lazy than a mind left unfilled by the fairy stories of our youth. They give us imagination, and creativity, and foolishness -- and no life is fulfilled that has not a little bit of foolery in it. And once their letters are learned upon, they became words that had meaning, and finally sentences and paragraphs, all of these culminated into stories, essays, and articles. All this, from the fat tome of fairy tales, read upon granny's knee.