James Marshall, Great Soul

If we paint and draw what we love, then James Marshall's illustrations must tell us a bit about James Marshall.

A recurring Marshall image is the reader in a fluffy chair, by the fireplace, with the open book. Sometimes, a teapot and cup of tea are visible. (Tea also becomes a form of medicine, in "The Tooth," and a tea-crate becomes Martha's important furniture in "The Trip," in a kind of reference to the Boston Tea Party. We see the crate on a raft, just before the raft flips over.)

You may spot a warm fire near the reader's chair, and you may spot cats. (Marshall returned, again and again, to the image of the cat.)

Crucially, in "Goldilocks," the protagonist is surrounded by books--but we don't see her reading them. This is because she is foolish. The books belong to the virtuous bears.

Finally, the classic Marshall image has a "summer" variation: In "Cinderella," the shoeless daydreaming bachelor prince is glimpsed in a hammock, and what does he have? You guessed it. A book.

(It seems to me that Marshall's portrait of his friend, Harry Allard, inspired Marshall's portrait of Cinderella's prince--or vice versa. See the images here.)

This--I guess--is my final "gay-focused" essay for Pride Month.....

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