So, my office calendar this year (in a break with tradition, replacing the Mayan) is an oversized wall calendar called 'Literary Classics', with Art by 'Anderson Design Group', whom I've never heard of. But I like the art, which seems deliberately evocative of the WPA poster art of the 1920s and 30s.
Just as interesting as the style are the choices of the Literary Classics chosen.
January: 20,000 Leagues
February: Peter Rabbit
March: The Call of Cthulhu
April: The Count of Monte Cristo
May: The Secret Garden
June: Treasure Island
July: Hamlet
August: The Island of Dr. Moreau
September: Moby Dick
October: Sleepy Hollow
November: The Little Mermaid
December: The Time Machine
An eclectic group. Some quite short (the Potter, Irving, Andersen, Wells), others quite lengthy (Dumas, Melville). I suspect I'm not the only one who, when confronted by such a grouping of display, such as frequently appear in the local Barnes & Noble, pauses a minute to work out how many of them I've read. So I'll go ahead and confess I've never read The Secret Garden or Count of Monte Christo. And while I'm at it, I'll share that my favorite among the art pieces here are the dramatic view of the last moments of the Pequod and crew; the Verne; and The Time Machine.
The most interesting thing about this selection is that it includes Lovecraft, who continues his ascent out of the pulp dungeon towards canonization --which wd I think have astonished Lovecraft and his pulp peers.
No Tolkien, but then he's in copyright.
For those who want to see more of these posters, see
or
https://www.andersondesigngroupstore.com/a/collections/search?
or just ADG.com
--John R.
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