Edyth, whom he would soon marry, not only influenced Rackham’s aesthetic but bolstered his confidence, encouraging him to deviate from tradition and develop a style all his own. He had just met the painter Edyth Starkie, young Walter’s aunt, over a garden fence. In 1900, seven years before he revolutionized the business of book art with Alice in Wonderland, Rackham set out to illustrate a special edition of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. The aesthetic accuracy of the then-teenager’s recollection may be suspect, but one thing is certain - Rackham was deeply animated by the Grimm spirit and was at the time consumed by the famed stories. “His face was wizened and wrinkled like a ripe walnut, and as he peered short sightedly at me out of his goggle spectacles I thought he was one of the goblins out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.” This is how his nephew Walter remembers thirty-something Arthur Rackham (September 19, 1867–September 6, 1939) - one of the most creatively influential and commercially inventive illustrators of all time.
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