I had just finished watching Searching For Bobby Fischer the other day after a sudden chess mood and I set out to search the disaster area that is my room for my old chess book. In my searches I stumbled on an Aesop’s Fables book I bought at a book sale years ago. It was the same book sale where I passed on buying a “Joy of Painting” type book written by Winston Churchill long before World War 2. I don’t know why I didn’t get it, but I kicked myself when I found that the book sells for about $60, it being somewhat rare. (Doh!)
Anyway, to make a long story longer, I tossed the book aside but then noticed it was illustrated by Alexander Calder of the famous Calder family of Philadelphia. It was his grandfather, Alexander Milne Calder, who sculpted the most well-known statue in Philadelphia- the William Penn atop the City Hall. Alexander’s father was also a prominent Philadelphia artist who, among other things, designed fountains around the city, including on at the end of the Ben Franklin Parkway.
Interestingly, standing above the Great Stair Hall in the Philadelphia Art Museum, you can look out the window toward the east entrance and gaze out at the Parkway. With one of Alexander Calder’s giant mobiles hanging above the stairway behind you, you can see Alexander Sterling Calder’s fountain with Alexander Milne Calder’s William Penn off into the distance, all forming a straight line.
Being the youngest of three generations of great artists, Alexander had no lack of skill and creativity. Many of his sculptures dot the landscape around many of Philadelphia’s public areas. I had not known that he illustrated anything and count the discovery serendipitous. The illustrations are very interesting and seem all to be contour pen drawings drawn mostly in one looping stroke.
I took the liberty of including some scans here for you. See if you can tell which fables they are. Enjoy.
P.S.- It’s been a while since I posted anything due to recent case of poison ivy rash which rendered my fingers useless when it came to typing. Starting a garden required the clearing of many poison ivy vines. In an effort to find my green thumb I got a red one instead.
During my absence the readership of this blog has tripled for some reason. What’s the moral to that fable? 
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