''Dream Days'' is a collection of

children's fiction Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

and reminiscences of childhood written by

Kenneth Grahame Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer. He is best remembered for the classic of children's literature ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908). Born in Scotland, he spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in ...

. A sequel to the

1895 Events January * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...

collection '' The Golden Age'' (some of its selections feature the same family of five children), ''Dream Days'' was first published in

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

under the imprint John Lane: The Bodley Head. The first six selections in the book had been previously published in periodicals of the day – in ''

The Yellow Book ''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...

'' and the ''New Review'' in Britain and in ''

Scribner's Magazine ''Scribner's Magazine'' was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. ''Scribner's Magazine'' was the second magazine out of the Scribner's firm, after the publication of ...

'' in the U.S. The book is best known for its inclusion of Grahame's classic story " The Reluctant Dragon". Like its precursor volume, ''Dream Days'' received strong approval from the literary critics of the day. In the decades since, the book has perhaps suffered a reputation as a thinner and weaker sequel to ''The Golden Age''—except for its single hit story. In one modern estimation, both books "paint a convincingly unsentimental picture of childhood, with the adults in these sketches totally out of touch with the real concerns of the young people around them, including their griefs and rages." As with ''The Golden Age,'' the first edition of ''Dream Days'' was un-illustrated; again like the prior volume, a subsequent edition of ''Dream Days'' was published with illustrations by

Maxfield Parrish Maxfield Parrish (July 25, 1870 – March 30, 1966) was an American painter and illustration, illustrator active in the first half of the 20th century. His works featured distinctive saturated hues and idealized neo-classical imagery. The ...

, also from John Lane. Lane's first intention was to print colour plates but he was not satisfied with the colour reproductions of Parrish's pictures. Instead Lane chose a new

photogravure Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) and ...

reproduction process that produced black-and-white results superior to the

halftone Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone, continuous-tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size or in spacing, thus generating a gradient-like effect.Campbell, Alastair. ''The Designer's Lexicon''. ...

images in the

1899 Events January * January 1 ** Spanish rule formally ends in Cuba with the cession of Spanish sovereignty to the U.S., concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.''The American Monthly Review of Reviews'' (February 1899), p ...

edition of ''The Golden Age.'' The Parrish-illustrated edition of ''Dream Days'' was issued in London and New York by The Bodley Head in

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's ...

; it contained ten full-page illustrations (one for each of the eight selections plus

frontispiece Frontispiece may refer to: * Frontispiece (books), a decorative illustration facing a book's title page * Frontispiece (architecture) In architecture, the term frontispiece is used to describe the Façade, principal face of the building, usually ...

and title page) and six tailpieces. The quality of the images in ''Dream Days'' inspired Lane to issue a matching edition of ''The Golden Age,'' with improved photogravure plates, in

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

.Coy Ludwig, ''Maxfield Parrish,'' New York, Watson-Guptill, 1973; pp. 29, 205. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the first edition of ''Dream Days'' sold for $1.25 per copy.

* The Twenty-first of October * Dies Irae * Mutabile Semper * The Magic Ring * Its Walls Were as of Jasper * A Saga of the Seas * The Reluctant Dragon * A Departure

References

External links

''Dream Days''
unillustrated, at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dream Days 1898 short story collections British short story collections Works about children The Bodley Head books Works by Kenneth Grahame The Reluctant Dragon (short story)

Contents

References

External links