Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

"MAGIC CASEMENTS"
that he could write for children with a charm that was
possessed by few men was always present in his mind. As
time went by this ability increased, and with it he developed
the power of drawing pictures to illustrate his children's
pieces, pictures that were as full of appeal to the young
mind as were the stories themselves. Equipped with this
double ability, he could always claim the attention of the
children; all he needed was something to write about.
Fairy tales had always fascinated him when he was a
child. His mother had read to him all that could be found
and he was saturated with their spirit. Now, when he in
turn was about to provide amusement for children he harked
back to his own childhood and remembered the great
allurement which the land of faery had held. He delved
into old, musty sources, he explored the mystery of the
folk tale, and in this treasury of fanciful plots he found
enough material to provide great quantities of entertainment, as well as considerable instruc'tion which he never
failed to make palatable. In one of the diary-letters under
the date of November 2 6, 18 76, he tells his mother about
the host of ideas he has found, and incidentally gives a
glimpse of his own enthusiasm for fairy tales:
Ic00 took Thorp's Northern Mythology out of the
Mercantile Library. It is a dry and prosy collection of
medieval legends, many of which I have selected to make
note of, and I shall try whether I can inf use a little fairytale juiciness into them. It is a rich mine to select from,
though a dull book to read. It gives a full and complete
account in a dry, pedantic manner of dwarfs, trolls, kaboutermannekens, nixen, ghosts and goblins. I shall make note of
a great many, hoping that some of these dry grains may
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