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

TH-E MIDDLE AGES
"I wish, for instance, that I could forget that part of the
narrative that tells of the mean and treacherous way in
which Gawaine and his brothers killed King Pellinore for
no other reason than their jealousy for his splendid knighthood, and murdered Sir Lamorack for the same reason,
knowing that they themselves would receive no punishment
because of their close kinship with King Arthur. Such acts
as these I know were only characteristic of the dark and
bloody Middle Ages, so I have tried to modernize Sir
Gawaine, losing as little as possible of his general characteristics as I understand them from the most universally
accepted narratives, and making him a brave and noble
knight in the modern sense.
"I wish in these stories that I could write half a dozen
books instead of the three volumes to which I must necessarily limit myself; for in three books one can only touch
upon a comparatively few of the voluminous and multitudinous incidents of the Arthurian narrative. One can only
take the direct thread, as it were, and string one's stories
upon it. One can only narrate, and one must tell the direct
narrative, treating it with as much original incident as
possible."
But in spite of the difficulties of handling and in spite
of the thousand and one other calls on his energy, the
Arthur story grew. On February 12, 1903, he wrote to
Scribners, "My book of King Arthur is pretty well along
in the writing. Quite half of it has been written. -"-)
By September 7th the text was completed and all of the
pictures with the exception of a few tailpieces had been sent
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