The Book of Romance
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Lang, Andrew, ed. The Book of Romance. Ill. H. J. [Henry Justice] Ford. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902.
H. J. [Henry Justice] Ford (1860-1941) enjoyed a long and profitable association with Andrew Lang. Born in London in 1860, Ford was an extremely successful student who attended Repton and won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where he completed a degree in classics. A friend of the distinguished Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, Ford exhibited history paintings and landscapes at the Royal Academy for more than a decade, between 1892 and 1903. But he is best remembered today for his book illustrations, especially the illustrations and volume covers that he designed for the Fairy Books. Ford also collaborated on another important project with Lang: he provided both color-plate and black-and-white illustrations for the Arthurian tales in Lang's Book of Romance, a collection of romances that retell highpoints of the Arthurian story, from the drawing of the sword from the stone to the death of Arthur and including such episodes as Merlin's entombment, the quest for the Grail, the death of Elaine of Astolat, etc. The volume also contains stories about Robin Hood, Roland, and other heroes of medieval tales. (The Arthurian tales in that collection were published separately, as Tales of the Round Table, a year later, in 1903.)
Ford's line drawings, which emphasize moments of high emotion and strange adventure, are as interesting and original as his color illustrations. For example, the tragedy of Balin's killing of his beloved brother Balan is captured not only by depicting the brothers lying together after their battle but also by Ford's inclusion of despondent and weeping maidens who witness their tragic recognition that they have slain the ones they most love. In another image, Ford portrays the elusive Questing Beast.
