Allison-Shelley Collection
German Literature in English Translation
Original pen-and-ink drawing by
Wanda Gág
for her translation of Tales from Grimm (1936) |
Children's Literature in the Allison-Shelley Collection
The Allison-Shelley Collection was bequeathed to the University Libraries in 1972 by the late Philip Allison Shelley (1907–1974), professor of German and comparative literature at Penn State. Today this endowed collection, housed in the Special Collections Library, contains over 13,000 books, letters, manuscripts, and original drawings that provide opportunities for the study of the literary and cultural influences of the German-speaking nations of Europe on England and the United States.
The special strengths of the Collection include a great number of early translations of major literary figures such as Goethe and Schiller, but there are also many other items reflecting Philip Shelley's innate playfulness and his interest in items that have considerable nostalgic value. Thus there are volumes relating to Christmas trees and children's literature that have become in some ways the chief attractions of the Collection--a development that surely would have pleased Philip Shelley. There is, for example, one of the earliest English translations of Johanna Spyri's Heidi in a two-volume set of 1884.
Also prominent among the works for children are numerous editions of the tales of the Brothers Grimm and their imitators. The earliest translations of the Brothers Grimm are represented, as well as the proofs of illustrations done by George Cruikshank in 1823 for the first illustrated versions of the tales in English. There are also dozens of imitations and separate translations of such stories as "Cinderella," "Puss-in-Boots," "The Bremen Town Musicians," and especially "Snow White."
The Collection includes several sets of noteworthy illustrations for some of the tales. It houses Wanda Gág's splendid series of color and pen-and-ink drawings for her translation of Tales from Grimm (1936). The Gág materials include 185 sketches and finished drawings, as well as galleys and layouts. There is also another set of pen-and-ink drawings done by Louis Rhead (1857-1926), an American art nouveau illustrator. Gwenda Morgan's Grimm's Other Tales, published by the Golden Cockerel Press in 1956, is accompanied by preliminary sketches, proofs, galleys, and finished wood engravings. There are a number of charming pen-and-ink drawings by Maud and Miska Petersham for a 1918 American edition. David Hockney's crisp etchings for his monumental Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm (1970) are more recent interpretations. Maurice Sendak is represented by his 1973 edition of Grimm, along with a signed print.
The Allison-Shelley Collection contains hundreds of editions and variations of the strange and horrifying tales by Heinrich Hoffmann (1809-1894) about the demonic boy with the long hair and long fingernails and the nearly untranslatable name, Struwwelpeter. In addition to many English translations (sometimes called Shock-Headed Peter), there are parodies--including a Struwwelhitler and a Tricky Dick and His Pals. Struwwelpeter is easily among the most popular of German stories for young people. Hoffmann, a physician, wrote these tales in a deliberately artless style for his own children. They have never gone out of print, and the stories of the cruel fates visited upon not so very naughty children have haunted the dreams of countless generations. The brutal, slapstick messages also found their way into the stories of Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908), whose Max und Moritz was the inspiration for the Katzenjammer Kids. It was William Randolph Hearst who shamelessly stole these comic-strip figures from the German press of the 1890s and made them part of American folklore.
Hundreds of Christmas books and other small volumes of children's literature by long-forgotten writers can be found in the Allison-Shelley Collection. All of these works are a valuable source of information, but we hope that they will also provide pleasure and inspiration for new illustrators and for readers still intrigued by timeless stories.
Among the most recently cataloged items in the Allison-Shelley Collection are toys and games, most of them manufactured in Germany for export, with instructions in both German and English.
The Acrobats/Die Acrobaten. Wood and paper toy, 18--?.
Gift of Philip Allison Shelley, 1974. |
Richter’s Anchor Blocks/Richter’s Anker Baukasten. Manufactured by F. Ad. Richter & Co,
New York, Rudolstadt, London, Nuremberg, etc., [1880]?
Gift of Philip Allison Shelley, 1974. |
