Books

Published within C. S. Lewis's second volume in The Chronicles of Narnia series, Prince Caspian, on page 151. The illustration is from Chapter Twelve ("Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance") in which Edmund, Peter, and Trumpkin arrive as Prince Caspian and Doctor Cornelius are attacked by "a Hag and a Wer-Wolf". "The next minute or so was very confused. There was an animal roaring, a clash of steel; the boys and Trumpkin rushed in; Peter had a glimpse of a horrible, grey, gaunt creature, half man and half wolf, in the very act of leaping upon a boy about his own age, and Edmund saw a badger and a Dwarf rolling on the floor in a sort of cat fight". In 1948 Pauline Baynes (1922-2008) was commissioned by Tolkien's publishers to provide illustrations for the author's Farmer Giles of Ham. Tolkien was delighted with the illustrations and wrote "I showed them to my friends whose polite comment was that they reduced my text to a commentary on the drawings" (Scull & Hammond, p. 112). Baynes became "Tolkien's illustrator of choice" (Scull & Hammond, p. 112), and she would later work on The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Smith of Wootton Major and a number of Tolkien's posthumous works. It was the collaboration between Tolkien and Baynes that led to her introduction to C. S. Lewis. As described by Scull & Hammond, "her most famous work... is her art for the seven volumes of the Chronicles of Narnia". When later asked how she came to be chosen as the illustrator of Narnia, Baynes responded "Lewis told me that he had actually gone into a bookshop and asked the assistant there if she could recommend someone who could draw children and animals. I don't know whether he was just being kind to me and making me feel that I was more important than I was or whether he'd simply heard about me from his friend Tolkien". Walter Hooper notes that Baynes and Lewis "were to meet several times to discuss the illustrations, and there seems unanimous agreement that the choice of an illustrator for Narnia was perfect" (Hooper, p. 406). When The Last Battle won the Carnegie Medal for the best children's book of 1956, Baynes wrote to congratulate Lewis. He responded asking "is it not rather 'our' Medal? I'm sure the illustrations were taken into consideration as well as the text" (Hooper, p. 408). READ MORE Original drawing (50 x 98 mm) on card (238 x 185 mm), ink, signed in pencil lower right ("Pauline Baynes"), captions and printer's markings below mount, mounted. Light consistent toning, crease to card not affecting image: fine and unfaded. Walter Hooper, C. S. Lewis: a Companion & Guide, 1996; Christian Scull & Wayne G. Hammond, The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion & Guide, 2017.

Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1951. It was the second-published of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956), although it is volume four in recent editions, which are sequenced according to the novels' internal chronology. In the story, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are transported back to Narnia, where they aid Prince Caspian in his struggle for the throne against his corrupt uncle, King Miraz.