Friday, February 11, 2011

Ho visto una nave navigare

Beni Montresor in the late Fifties

Ho visto una nave navigare is one of the very first books I have ever touched. 


It was published in Italy by Emme Edizioni (that published many wonderful books) in 1967, same year as the American edition (Knopf), titled I Saw a Ship A-Sailing. It's Beni Montresor's interpretation of some classic nursery rhymes. In the Italian edition, there are English words and sentences here and there, which were part of the illustrations, like "Not on me! Not on me!" or "Very new shoe". As a kid I didn't understand what those English words meant, but they stayed with me forever, as did these dreamy drawings.



2 comments:

  1. Gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. he is one of my favorite illustrators! i love his crazy colors - they work perfectly for his drawings. i discovered his work when i went to a library sale last year - i bought a book called "On Christmas Eve" that was written by Margaret Wise Brown. then i checked out "A for Angel" at the library. i wish more people knew about him. i would love to have seen more of his stage sets too.

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