You must allow us to tell you how ardently we admire and love you.
To celebrate your 54th birthday, we’re serving up a 3-course repast here at Alphabet Soup: a brand new picture book, a spot of tea, and you.
Whether as Fitzwilliam Darcy or Mark Darcy, you truly take the cake. May we be so bold as to say you are stunning wet, dry, and everything in-between?
And boy, can you rock a cravat and waistcoat.
We remain your loyal fans, wishing you the best birthday ever.
With deep affection and hearts a-flutter,
Every female in the world with a pulse xoxoxoxo
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♥ FIRST COURSE ♥ Goodnight Mr Darcy by Kate Coombs and Alli Arnold
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an earnest writer and a department store sniffing artist in possession of talent and wit must be in want of a good parody.
For award winning author Kate Coombs and award-winning illustrator Alli Arnold, a send-up of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice à la beloved children’s classic Goodnight Moon was just the thing to set their bonnets a-twirl.
In the great ballroom There was a country dance And a well-played tune And Elizabeth Bennet —
So begins this tidy tale of moonlight and romance, as all are gathered at the Netherfield Ball — Lydia and Kitty looking pretty, Mr Darcy surprised by a pair of fine eyes, Jane with a blush and Mr Bingley turned to mush, and let’s not forget a certain gossiping mother and a father saying ‘hush’.
Those familiar with Pride and Prejudice know that the Ball is a crucial scene — where Darcy has singled out Elizabeth, and caught off-guard, she agrees to dance with him. They are allowed to engage in unchaperoned conversation (gasp!), their unguarded repartee ever-so-temptingly weakening their resolve.
In Goodnight Mr Darcy (Gibbs Smith, 2014), Kate has retained the simple rhyming structure and lulling cadence of Brown’s Goodnight Moon, but with a brilliant tongue-against-blushing cheek makeover that outlines all the delectable aspects of the prim and proper Darcy/Lizzy conscious coupling from ‘cute meet’ at the dance to mutual mooning over each other at home to happily ever after. The Mr Bingley and Jane pairing adds a bit of ‘mushy’ humor boys will appreciate, while the whole concept of a fancy dress ball with tipping of top hats, flitting of fans and oh-so-civilized how-de-do’s will have special appeal to girls.
Please help yourself to Emily’s rice cakes and a cup of green tea.
Hello Spring, is that really you? 🙂
Today we’re greeting the somewhat reluctant, much-awaited season of renewal, rebirth, and regrowth with a little help from esteemed poet Emily Dickinson.
I’m sure you know she was fond of sending friends and acquaintances fragrant bouquets with notes or verses tucked in them, sometimes with a gift of food.
What could be sweeter than homemade gingerbread or coconut cake, nasturtiums and peonies from her garden, and a heartfelt verse she’d penned just for you?
from the New York Botanical Gardens Emily Dickinson Exhibit (2010)
Though she may have eschewed personal contact with people outside the family, Emily was able to sustain longstanding friendships and express romantic inclinations on her own terms. She cultivated and excelled in all three of these pursuits — gardening, baking, writing — as a normal course of each day, all of them requiring practiced skill, time and devotion.
“England, with its history and air of magic, the soil and woods thick with meanings that survive in fragments, is an empire of imagination.” ~ T.S. Eliot
Help yourself to a cup of organic darjeeling and a lemon butter cookie.
Fancy a drive along a winding country road, rolling green hills and grey stone walls as far as the eye can see? Perhaps a leisurely stroll along an ancient footpath across a meadow resplendent with wildflowers?
Maybe you’d rather visit Beatrix Potter’s house, explore the formal gardens of a stately home, find a welcoming inn for a spot of tea, or join the convivial conversation at a neighborhood pub.
This gorgeous, handwritten, illustrated diary chronicles the two months in 2012 when Susan and her true love Joe wandered around England from Tenterden, Kent, up to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, and down through the Cotswolds.
Just in case you were wondering, the reason we usually look so spiffy around here is because we have the best washerwoman.
Her name is Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and she hails from the Lake District. Do you know her too? A tidier, more conscientious “clear-starcher” you’d be hard pressed to find. The other day, when untimely Spring (?) snowflakes were drifting down from the sky, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle chanced by to deliver a freshly laundered stack of tea towels and table linens.
We couldn’t very well turn her out in a snowstorm, so we invited her in for tea. Coincidentally, Cornelius and I had just baked a fresh batch of Littletown-Farm Carrot Cookies. Every Easter we get into a “Peter Rabbit mood” and crave carrots. We found the cookie recipe in Peter Rabbit’s Natural Foods Cookbook, and since we’d made Fierce Bad Rabbit’s Carrot-Raisin Salad from that book many times before, we thought the cookies would also be a good bet.
“Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle’s hand, holding the tea-cup, was very very brown, and very very wrinkly with the soap-suds; and all through her gown and her cap, there were hair-pins sticking wrong end out; so that Lucie didn’t like to sit too near her.”
We agreed that reading Maira’s Max books (Max Makes a Million, Ooh-la-la (Max in Love), Max in Hollywood, Baby, Swami on Rye) pretty much changed our lives. It made her want to study children’s literature; it made me want to write stories. Safe to say that when it comes to Maira’s work, whether it’s her children’s books, NewYorker covers, or her much beloved New YorkTimes illustrated essays, most people fall madly in love.
“Easter Parade”(April 1996)
It’s rarely just, “I like Maira Kalman.” It’s usually, “I LOVE Maira Kalman,” or, “I ADORE Maira Kalman.” Few contemporary author/illustrators can provoke such a strong reaction across such a broad range of readers — both genders, all ages, ethnicities, political persuasions. Maybe it’s because she speaks to the adult in the child and the child in the adult. Or because she’s perfected the art of seamlessly blending typography with images. Maybe it’s because of all those hats and cakes!
I think it’s because her work is a candid expression of her essential self, always fresh and exciting. She chronicles what she sees, hears, and feels as she moves about the world with her own brand of sophisticated innocence. With Maira, there’s a surprise around every corner. When you read one of her pieces, you get the sense she’s creating something right there on the spot just for you. Suddenly and spontaneously, ordinary things are beautiful, you see connections between seemingly random, disparate objects, thoughts, and ideas. Her view is expansive, her energy, infectious, her humor, off-the-wall and clear through to the other side. Of course there’s also the pure unadulterated joy and hope she brings to a complicated, uncertain, troubled world. And she does it with crazy cool style and panache (and pie)!
So, Jules and I said, “Wouldn’t it be the ultimate kick to interview Maira?” Jules, who was born with an extra helping of gumption, emailed Maira but didn’t hear back. Perfectly understandable. She must receive a million such requests and like it or not, cannot accommodate everyone.
Fast forward to 2012, when Maira’s new picture book, LookingAt Lincoln, is released by Penguin. We both review it, talking again about our “dream interview.” Jules, who has friends in all the right publishing places, tries again and this time Maira says yes!
Holy Wow! After we stopped screaming, we came up with a few questions which Maira answered right away. Pinch me. I’m dreaming, right? Jules and I are cross-posting this interview at our blogs today, because if anything bears repeating, it’s Maira’s words and pictures. Stereo à la Kalman. So, gather ye Cheez Doodles, zing your rubber bands, bless Abraham Lincoln, and read on.
(Yes, of course there’s cake.)
Please help yourself.
You’ve described yourself as a five layer jelly cake, a festive moment when you’re not following the rules. What do you consider to be the five most significant milestones of your career thus far?
There were many wonderful moments. The first children’s book that I illustrated and wrote, HEY WILLY, SEE THE PYRAMIDS. It is about my family and short unconnected moments. Digressions. Which I love. And since I love short, unconnected moments, THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE and THE PRINCIPLES OF UNCERTAINTY are also very important works for me.
How challenging was it, if at all, to adapt your well-loved and well-received NYT blog post on Lincoln into the 32-page picture book form?
Lincoln presents no problems. Every story with Lincoln tells itself really well. He is Lincoln, after all.
What Pete Ate from A-Z and Smartypants (Pete in School) are hysterical. Did the real Pete regularly devour things he should not?
The dear dog Pete ate MANY things that he should not. Yes, he ate my camera. But I loved him and could not get mad.
You’ve cited Ludwig Bemelmans and Charlotte Salomon as sources of creative inspiration. What do you love most about their work, and how have they influenced you as an illustrator? Also, are there specific experiences that formed the essential basis, the fundamental building blocks, of your artistic vision? Books, movies, artists (in addition to Bemelmans and Salomon), events, images, anything else?
Bemelmans and Salomon share a sophistication and love of beauty and place. And they also have a childlike exuberance. AND they write and paint. That appeals to me.
Of course there are many influences on my work. From literary, Nabokov, to films — The Marx Brothers, to music — St. Matthew’s Passion. And then there is architecture and fashion and and and. I have a basic curiosity about things and people. And I tend to listen and look. That goes a long way. Then I have many things to write and draw. And I day dream and dream. That also helps.
We love your humorous, surprising, whimsical, elegant, free associative style. You personalize objects and imbue them with cosmic significance, approach historical subjects with childlike wonder and curiosity, captivating us with your love of humanity. How do you sustain and nurture your creative life without becoming jaded, cynical or overexposed? How do you overcome self doubt?
All of these questions are complicated. There is a lot of hope involved. And hoping for the best. And just plain doing your work. I can’t emphasize that enough. Just sitting there and doing it — persevering. being patient. and seeing the long view. I am lucky in that my mother and aunts — the women in my family — were funny and irreverent. They told wonderful stories and baked cakes and generally had an optimistic view of the world, while knowing that tragic things happened all the time. And they loved to read. Reading was highly prized. And it gets passed on. I am immensely lucky, and it would really be awful if I were jaded or cynical.
On that note, what do you, as an artist, find most challenging and satisfying in the creative processes that you employ?
The best part is the surprise. I take many walks and wander. And in that wandering so much is revealed. And I find so much clarity and inspiration. Like a journalist reporting on what I have seen. And then in the studio, to not think too much. To let the work happen and to find the unexpected. To allow mistakes to be part of it. To not get it right, but just to get it.
Food figures prominently in your work, everything from cherry pies, strawberry shortcakes, onion rings, pink ice pops, veal roasts to Cheez Doodles. Could you please explain the significance of Cheez Doodles in your family history?
I came to the U.S. when I was little, in the 1950’s. It was a very can-do time, in a can-do country. And the playfulness of products and the names really struck me. I delight in candy names and in the fun of those products. Not that I eat Cheez Doodles that often. But I know that they have a place in our world.
We love Max. Will there be any more Max books?
Maybe. Maybe.
Any projects you’re working on now that you can tell us about?
A book about Thomas Jefferson. A book about my favorite things that will be a catalog of a show I am curating for the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Articles for various magazines. Teaching. Walking. Traveling. Many wonderful things.
What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?
I would like to dance in a show. Or be an extra in an opera.
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Thanks so much for visiting Alphabet Soup and 7-Imp today, Maira! When you dance in a show or appear in an opera, Jules and I will be in the front row. ☺
“Quick Question. Would you love a dog who ate your lucky quarter, the Q from your alphabet collection, your porcupine quill? Even if for the quadrillionth time you said, “Quit It. Don’t EAT that,” and he Did, would you still love that dog? Quite a lot.” ~ Maira Kalman (What Pete Ate from A-Z)
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This post is being linked to Beth Fish Read’s Weekend Cooking, where all are invited to share food-related posts (recipes, fiction, nonfiction, cookbook, movie reviews, photos, musings, etc.).
I think it’s because her work is a candid expression of her essential self, always fresh and exciting. She chronicles what she sees, hears, and feels as she moves about the world with her own brand of sophisticated innocence. With Maira, there’s a surprise around every corner. When you read one of her pieces, you get the sense she’s creating something right there on the spot just for you. Suddenly and spontaneously, ordinary things are beautiful, you see connections between seemingly random, disparate objects, thoughts, and ideas. Her view is expansive, her energy, infectious, her humor, off-the-wall and clear through to the other side. Of course there’s also the pure unadulterated joy and hope she brings to a complicated, uncertain, troubled world. And she does it with crazy cool style and panache (and pie)!
What Pete Ate from A-Z and Smartypants (Pete in School) are hysterical. Did the real Pete regularly devour things he should not?
On that note, what do you, as an artist, find most challenging and satisfying in the creative processes that you employ?
Jama's Alphabet Soup 