Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) was born in Kent, England. His early years would not cause one to expect the literally fantastic turn his career took.

    One of 12 children, he was sickly. But after a year in Australia's healthier climate, by age 18 he was back in England working as a clerk in a government office, and studying art in his spare time.

    In his mid-20s, he went to work as a newspaper reporter and illustrator.

    Prosaic, isn't it? But soon he had turned to book and magazine illustration as a full-time profession. Though he had been doing so for many years, it wasn't until his 1905 success with "Rip Van Winkle" that he centered in on illustrating children's literature. The following year he did pictures for a children's book by Rudyard Kipling, and one of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" books.

    His time has been called the "Golden Age of British book illustration"--from the late years of Queen Victoria's reign (1890s) to the start of the First World War--when lavishly illustrated books, sometimes bound in leather and autographed, were often given as gifts.

    The list of works he has illustrated is lengthy, but a few stand out for their fame: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll; "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare; "Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm" and those of Hans Christian Andersen; "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift; "Aesop's Fables;" "Mother Goose;" "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens; "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by Robert Browning; and "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame.

    Note that in most cases, these are not the first publication of these works, but re-issues made more attractive by Rackham's contributions. So impressive were they that today, you can buy books which are nothing but collections of Rackham's illustrations, especially of fairy tales, divorced from the texts they were meant to illustrate.

    Today his images can be seen in everything from fine art prints to greeting cards. His imagination has shaped ours: when we think of what a fairy looks like, we often "see" Rackham!

    Vocabulary: Which word above means:

    1. in great amounts, without restraint

    2. books or magazines published again

    3. items sent on birthdays and other special occasions

    4. separated

    5. extra, more than needed

    6. with a famous person's signature

    7. long

    8. of, or related to, fantasy

    9. time of rule

    10. common, dull, unimaginative

    ANSWERS: 1. lavishly 2. re-issues 3. greeting cards 4. divorced 5. spare 6. autographed 7. lengthy 8. fantastic 9. reign 10. prosaic