The Yellow Book - Vol 2

Written by Kenneth Grahame, Charlotte Mew and John Buchan

Narrated by Richard Mitchley, Ghizela Rowe and David Shaw-Parker

During the Victorian era the publishing of magazines and periodicals accelerated at a phenomenal rate. This really was mass market publishing to a hungry audience eager for literary sustenance. Many of our greatest authors contributed and expanded their reach whilst many fledging authors also found a ready source for their nascent works and careers.

Amongst the very many was ‘The Yellow Book’. Although titled as ‘An Illustrated Quarterly’ it was sold as a cloth-bound hardback and within were short stories, essays, poetry, illustrations and portraits. It was edited by the American author Henry Harland, who also contributed, and its art editor was no less that the formidable Aubrey Beardsley, the enfant terrible of illustration.

Its yellow cover and name gave it an association with the risqué and erotic yellow covered works published in France. It was a visual shorthand for ideas that would push many boundaries of Society to more open interpretations. Being complete in each volume and slightly aloof it stayed away from serialised fiction and advertisements.

Within each lavishly illustrated edition were literary offerings that included works by such luminaries as Henry James, H G Wells, W B Yeats, Edith Nesbit, George Gissing and many others from the ascetic and decadent movements of the time.

The other notable inclusion was women both as contributors and amongst its editing staff, which was at odds with the then patriarchal gender norms.

Although it only survived for 13 issues its reach and influence were second to none.

1 - The Yellow Book - An Introduction. Volume 2

2 - Passed by Charlotte Mew

3 - Apple Blossom in Brittany by Ernest Dowson

4 - Second Thoughts by Arthur Moore

5 - The Papers of Basil Fillimer by H D Traill

6 - Suggestion by Mrs Ernest Leverson

7 - The Crimson Weaver by R Murray Gilchrist

8 - A Pen and Ink Effect by Frances E Huntley

9 - The Inquity of Oblivion by Kenneth Grahame

10 - Dies Irae by Kenneth Grahame

11 - A Resurrection by H B Marriott Watson

12 - A Journey of Little Profit by John Buchan

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Copyright Group
• Release date: Jan 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781839677656

Kenneth Grahame

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) was a Scottish author of children’s literature. Following the death of his mother at a young age, Grahame was sent to live with his grandmother in Berkshire, England, in a home near the River Thames. Unable to study at Oxford due to financial reasons, Grahame embarked on a career with the Bank of England, eventually retiring to devote himself to writing. An early exposure to nature and wildlife formed a lasting impression on Grahame, who would return to the Thames Valley of his youth throughout his literary career—most notably in his novel The Wind in the Willows (1908), which is considered his finest achievement and a masterpiece of children’s fiction.