We had a bunch of those illustrated classics (the second set pictured here) and I LOVED them! I can feel them in my hand and even smell that paper all these decades later.
They made Billy Budd interesting?! Holy snikeys? HOW!? The real version is dreadful! I think I remember some of those classics floating around the house. But not Billy Budd.
There's some sets on ebay - I picked up 39 of the books in good enough shape for $60 (guy wanted $79.99, I wasn't going to pay THAT much) between the 60 in the classics line, and 12 in the Shakespeare, there's 72 total books....
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing your experiences, Chris. I remember reading Dr. Seuss back in the 60s as a 4-year-old and going from there to any kid's book with a whiff of masculinity in the waiting room. *Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel* was a favorite of mine.
However, I always enjoyed reading history, science, and technology books more than fiction as a kid. The "How and Why Wonder Books;" technical references of dinosaurs, airplanes, race cars, ships, dirigibles, etc.; and the Osprey Men-at-Arms series of books, showing the uniforms and weapons of soldiers from history. Those books had quite enough wonder, horror, and adventure for me. An occasional Hardy Boys book was fine, but I loved the World Book Encyclopedia for fun reading more than the new kids' fiction books that were crowding out the masculine stories in the 70s.
It wasn't until I saw a copy of *Starship Troopers* sitting one shelf over from a reference book about Medal of Honor recipients that I realized that there were still masculine tales available for me. I still have a copy of Heinlein's "Between Planets." These tales led me to the "Yankee Flier" series of air combat and combating espionage tales. Then CS Forester's Hornblower series; I just read his "Rifleman Dodd" tale last year, so his influence in my reading remains.
I think that looking at my reading experience, I preferred reading about grown ups doing great things, and Heinlein's stories showed kids coming pretty darn close in their own accomplishments.
Looking at your list, I think skipped over most of the boy adventure stories. I remember the Jack London books and Gary Paulsen's Hatchet filled a summer reading list between 3rd and 4th grade. I remember Rifles for Watie and some other Civil War books took over my library rentals after being fascinated with the subject during a 4th-grade history class. From there I stayed in the historical and Western fiction and read through all the Dana Fuller Ross Wagon's West Series with my dad when I would have been 10 or so. I remember because that was the year I started mowing lawns for money. At $10 for mowing the 2 neighbor lady's lawns, I could get one paperback and one comic book from the local Five-and-Dime every week. After those books, it was all Michael Crichton and Stephen King until I found the Star Wars EU books.
By the time my son was that age, all he wanted was Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books. I missed out on them twice!
This post did my heart good. Seeing the cover to my favorite "Choose your own" adventure "Space and Beyond" where you could actually have a horrifically bad end (Death by disease that made you explode). The spun glass/hot house flowers need some tempering lest the world eat them alive, so it may as well be in their fiction where they can at least learn Neil Gaiman's famous quote that not only are dragons real, but they can be beaten.
We had a bunch of those illustrated classics (the second set pictured here) and I LOVED them! I can feel them in my hand and even smell that paper all these decades later.
They made Billy Budd interesting?! Holy snikeys? HOW!? The real version is dreadful! I think I remember some of those classics floating around the house. But not Billy Budd.
Gosh, I would love to get my hands on the comic art for my kids. I'll bet it costs a fortune these days!
There's some sets on ebay - I picked up 39 of the books in good enough shape for $60 (guy wanted $79.99, I wasn't going to pay THAT much) between the 60 in the classics line, and 12 in the Shakespeare, there's 72 total books....
This would be the best way to get my kids interested in these books. And heck, I'd love to read them myself!
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing your experiences, Chris. I remember reading Dr. Seuss back in the 60s as a 4-year-old and going from there to any kid's book with a whiff of masculinity in the waiting room. *Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel* was a favorite of mine.
However, I always enjoyed reading history, science, and technology books more than fiction as a kid. The "How and Why Wonder Books;" technical references of dinosaurs, airplanes, race cars, ships, dirigibles, etc.; and the Osprey Men-at-Arms series of books, showing the uniforms and weapons of soldiers from history. Those books had quite enough wonder, horror, and adventure for me. An occasional Hardy Boys book was fine, but I loved the World Book Encyclopedia for fun reading more than the new kids' fiction books that were crowding out the masculine stories in the 70s.
It wasn't until I saw a copy of *Starship Troopers* sitting one shelf over from a reference book about Medal of Honor recipients that I realized that there were still masculine tales available for me. I still have a copy of Heinlein's "Between Planets." These tales led me to the "Yankee Flier" series of air combat and combating espionage tales. Then CS Forester's Hornblower series; I just read his "Rifleman Dodd" tale last year, so his influence in my reading remains.
I think that looking at my reading experience, I preferred reading about grown ups doing great things, and Heinlein's stories showed kids coming pretty darn close in their own accomplishments.
My younger boys enjoy this beautifully illustrated and faithful version of St George and the Dragon-
https://substack.com/@andyflattery/note/c-70498628?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=a9rcm
Looking at your list, I think skipped over most of the boy adventure stories. I remember the Jack London books and Gary Paulsen's Hatchet filled a summer reading list between 3rd and 4th grade. I remember Rifles for Watie and some other Civil War books took over my library rentals after being fascinated with the subject during a 4th-grade history class. From there I stayed in the historical and Western fiction and read through all the Dana Fuller Ross Wagon's West Series with my dad when I would have been 10 or so. I remember because that was the year I started mowing lawns for money. At $10 for mowing the 2 neighbor lady's lawns, I could get one paperback and one comic book from the local Five-and-Dime every week. After those books, it was all Michael Crichton and Stephen King until I found the Star Wars EU books.
By the time my son was that age, all he wanted was Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books. I missed out on them twice!
This post did my heart good. Seeing the cover to my favorite "Choose your own" adventure "Space and Beyond" where you could actually have a horrifically bad end (Death by disease that made you explode). The spun glass/hot house flowers need some tempering lest the world eat them alive, so it may as well be in their fiction where they can at least learn Neil Gaiman's famous quote that not only are dragons real, but they can be beaten.
Thank you for the kind words, but Gaiman was paraphrasing G.K. Chesterton when he said that :)
I never knew that. :)
best source I can find - https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/04/chesterton-on-fairy-tales-and-evil
Classic comics! Husband talks about those. I didn't know they were real (or maybe, that there were that many)!
You finally gave me a reason to read Wuthering Heights. Compare and contrast with Darcy.