I’m a long-time fan of (and contributor to) Ang Wyman’s flickr group Eye Candy, which features “Trippy Hippy kids books from the 60’s and 70’s .” Ang — a Brooklyn-based artist and instructor — also started a blog recently to document her personal collection of kids’ book insanity. She describes the collection perfectly:
These are all kid’s books from the early 60’s to the late 70’s that I began collecting as public libraries were deaccessionizing (having yard sales of well-thumbed books). The trippy hippy psychedelic years, when kids books were saturated with acid colors and contained a graphic punch; bell bottom figures melting into landscapes, Brit Mod Supergraphics made of zipatone and cellotak, art noveau figurative swirliness and visionary hallucinatory scenarios. The books contain an underlying optimism of utopic eco-friendly promises, or offbeat amateur artist published awkward drawings and I like even the goofy celebratory commercial work of 70’s faux predigested hippiness.
Thank you Ang for sharing some images on AJRMS.
Click for larger versions.
Nicolas Sidjakov, illus. for A Lodestone and a Toadstone by Irene Elmer, 1969
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Nicole Claveloux, illus. for Gertrude and The Mermaid by Richard Hughes, 1971
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Peter Max, Paper Airplane Book, 1971
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Tim Lewis, illus. for Help! I Am the Mother of a Teen-Age Girl by Lois Wyse, 1966
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Alan Aldridge, The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast, 1973
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Tricks or Treats by Bill Martin, Jr., Illustrated by Jim Spanfeller, Handlettering by Ray Barber, 1979
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Allen Say, Under the Cherry Blossom Tree, 1974
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Ellen Raskin, Moose, Goose and Little Nobody, 1974
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Heinz Edelmann, Andromedary SR!, 1970
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Seymour Chwast, Sleepy Ida and Other Nonsense Poems by Steven Kroll, 1977 (endpapers)
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
John Alcorn, Pocahontas in London, 1967
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Ed Powers, M for Monster- A monster joke book, 1965
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Donna Sloan, Fat Cat’s Craft and Coloring Book, 1971
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Alan E. Cober, Winter’s Eve, 1969
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Alain Le Foll, The Very Obliging Flowers, 1968
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Larry Bowser, Big Mother Goose, The Book of Psychedelic Nursery Rhymes, 1971
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Nicolas Sidjakov, illus. for A Lodestone and a Toadstone by Irene Elmer, 1969
via Ang Wyman blog / flickr
Previously:
- Tresky Plesky or Kvanki Vanki: International children’s books from the collection of Rilla Alexander
- Primitive prosthesis, nightmare fodder, sailors, Linda’s all powerful hand: A tour of Curious Pages and their Recommended Inappropriate Books for Kids