Prince Bayaya (Bajaja in Czech) is a classic tale told at bedtime in many households. It was written by the famous Božena Němcová (February 4, 1820 – January 21, 1862) who was a Czech writer of the final phase of the Czech National Revival movement. This version features illustrations by Karel Franta (born May 1928). Franta is both...
The Apple Maiden or Apple Tree Maid is known as Jabloňová Panna in Czech. It is a Czech fairy tale as told by Karel Jaromír Erben. The illustrations are from my book entitled Pohadky with a copyright date of 1979. The following plates are illustrations from the story by Eva Šedivá. She was born in Prague in 1934....
The following illustrations for Three White Roses are created by the very talented Zdeňka Krejčová (b. 1944). The story is by Beneš Metod Kulda (1820 – 1903). A translation of the folk tale will be forthcoming, but for now here are some lovely illustrations. Three White Roses Collecting the roses. Three beautiful girls. Beneš was a patriotic priest,...
What are you going to be when you grow up? Well, in 1960 in Czechoslovakia, you had some interesting choices as we can see by these lovely illustrations from the very talented illustrator Luděk Vimr ( July 5, 1921 – 9 November 2005 ). Ludek was a Czech painter , graphic artist and illustrator . He...
Fairy Tales from the Mushroom Forest is a small pamphlet style book that was sent to me when it came out on 1978. In Czech, the title is Pohádky z houbového lesa written by Ljuba Štíplováand illustrated by Zdeňka Krejčová (b. 1944), who also illustrated Three White Roses. It is a sweet story about forest folk and their...
Co pán poroučí translates to “What Lord Commands”, but I would translate this Czech story to As You Wish. The story is written by Josef Štefan Kubin (October 7, 1864 – Nov. 25, 1965). He was a high school teacher, folklorist, collector of folk stories and fairy tales, ethnographer, dialectician, literary journalist and writer. The story...
Growing up I loved a little woodsman named Loupežník Rumcajs. (Rumcajs the Little Bandit of the Forest). He’s a fairytale character of many bedtime stories of Czech children. He starts out as a cobbler in the city of Jičin but he insults the mayor Humpál by making shoes that do not fit properly so he is...
A vacation in Paris inspired Bohemian Miroslav Sasek to create children’s travel guides to big cities around the world. The guides are large, colorful books done in his fantastic watercolor style and are an awesome historical record of the attitudes and perceptions of the 60s. These lovely 19 design classics feature illustration at its best. Miroslav Šašek (this is...
