This edition was part of a series of MacDonald books published in 1911 with all the Arthur Hughes illustrations as well as 12 color plates by Frank Pape.

I see a strong influence from Arthur Hughes to Pape. In the selected illustration, Diamond has the same length nightgown blowing the same way in the wind, and the same style face and hair.

Frank Cheyne Papé (pronounced "paw PAY") was born in England in 1878. At age 24, in 1902 the first known book of his color illustrations appeared: Naughty Eric and other stories from Giant, Witch, and Fairyland. He also did illustrations for a series of fairy tale books: The Ruby Fairy Book and he also did plates for The Diamond Fairy Book and The Golden Fairy Book.

His fame came from illustrating social satire books in the 1920s for Anatole France who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1921. Pape illustrated six of his books in the 1920s. After 1935 I could find nothing more other than in November 1943 he resurfaces as the “art director” for a children’s magazine published in Chicago called Uncle Ray’s Corner. He illustrated that magazine for about 10 years

The Blackie & Son book cover is one of my favorites and the basic design was used for five MacDonald novels in their "Books for Young People"  series: ABNW, P&G, P&C, A Rough Shaking, and Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood. Their design was also the cover design model for the Winged Lion Press collection of essays titled BEHIND THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND (edited by GM scholars John Pennington and Roderick McGillis). BBNW includes selected illustrations by artists including 5 by the incredibly talented Lauren A. Mills, illustrator for ABNW in a 1988 edition published in the USA by David R. Godine. (more on Lauren Mills in a future post)

I should also mention that the collection has 16 essays related to At the Back of the North Wind plus the editor's introduction. It is meant to be a companion book to a critical edition of ABNW published by Broadview Press (and edited by the same two gentlemen: Pennington and McGillis). Winged Lion Press is offering free shipping for this book and other MacDonald titles.

.Robert Trexler Editor, CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society Publisher, Winged Lion Press