News from Cellar Door Books

THE WEBSTER FARM BOOKS

Adventures of a Beagle endpapers, front and back, the view of the McCready home, Webster, NH, from the southwest.

Last month we discussed several of the books that were inspired by the times the McCready family celebrated on the Webster, NH, farm.   We continue with ...

Pekin White (Ariel, 1955) was the second of the five titles penned by McCready. The family is featured in several watercolor illustrations. One is of a picnic at the Blackwater River and another shows the family walking back home through the pasture, with beagles as body guards. The four children are identified as Bill, Ralph, Helen and Emily. Helen, the Bethany figure, raises two white ducks whose insatiable need for water drives a number of adventures. The greatest of these takes them into the deep woods for two days and two nights amid the strange sounds and smells of wild animals.   In addition to the expected pictures, Tudor also illustrated a deer, a raccoon and a bull frog for this story.

Mr. Stubbs (Ariel, 1956) begins with the history of a tiger cat named Tiddle who "was forever having kittens until it became an expected habit." One of her many offspring - and the only one ever born without a tail - seemed to be part wildcat.   He was so unusual that he soon became a family favorite and enjoyed many special times with the four children.   He rode in a series of chariots, his own surrey and, for fun outdoors, a wheelbarrow. One transgression that was not tolerated was his ramblings about the family doll house.   He is pictured in many of these situations in seventeen watercolor and twenty-eight pencil drawings. Tudor paints the farmstead in this book on pages 10-11, this time looking north past Mt. Kearsarge toward Ragged Mountain and other hills.   She also included an enchanting pencil self-portrait that shows not only Tudor at her table, but also a set of blue and white and gold china that appears in several of her Christmas cards.

Increase Rabbit (Ariel, 1958) is the name of one of the McCready's early bunnies. The book brings a softer set of drawings, befitting the softer side of animal life at the McCready farm. There are also interesting insights into the family's life of the times, compared to later denouements. "Bill, Emily, Ralph and Helen had so many pets they hardly needed more, but Mrs. Warner loved rabbits, and so she thought of course her children would enjoy owning a nice pair.   And, to be sure, the children would take complete care of them, she said to herself, while she, Mrs. Warner, could love them all she pleased. . . . Their mother, the children said, certainly had a gift for buying just the right things!" They were two Belgian hares, Albert and George. George was renamed Increase after she surprised everyone by birthing a family of seven into a soft nest. A new set of adventures awaits the children.   Increase is taught to walk on a leash just as Mr. Stubbs had done. If you have a copy of the DVD The Golden Key, you can see one of the rabbit family being cuddled by Tasha Tudor in her husband's bookshop. We think Tudor painted one of her most charming family portraits for this book, a watercolor grouping of the four children all holding some part of the rabbit family.   The book also carries Tudor's most elegant dedication page. The watercolor illustration features the two daughters and Increase within a frame of an espaliered apple tree wound about by a grapevine. Tudor's tulip-ware tea cups find their way into one
scene. McCready dedicated the book to his editor Hal Vursell. Twelve watercolors and twenty-three pencil drawings.

Adventures of a Beagle (Ariel, 1959) represents the transition from beagle to corgi dogs. While this book was in production son Tom McCready [Tudor] was in school in England. And from that experience corgis entered Tudor's life for nearly 50 years. But this book's protagonist is still May Day Warner, a beagle who ruled the roost until the corgis arrived. This was the last published of the farm books, but as the story reveals, only the Toulouse geese had been on the farm longer.   Bethany [Emily] is credited with purchasing May Day with her own saved money.   The beagle was named for the day she was purchased. She was as curious as all the other animals, eventually produces puppies and raises a family, and was known for her especially keen nose. But even with a fine nose, "She could do nothing to prevent [the flies] coming in by the dozen to buzz about until Tweedy, the pet starling, was let out of his cage to gobble up every single one. . . It was great sport for May to watch Emily carry Tweedy about the room, holding him close to the bewildered insects, which disappeared inside Tweedy's yellow beak faster than the eye could see."   This would be the same pet starling that Bethany really did smuggle past English customs authorities and then by their US counterparts when the family returned from England in 1958.   We especially like the endpapers for this book.   Tudor once more painted a landscape of the pasture behind the house, but this one is very much more realistic than the earlier versions. She also includes a nice illustration of her yellow kitchen in the old house.   Fifteen watercolors and twenty-five pencil drawings.

Flatfoot (unpublished 1962). This book was never published, but is referred to in a certain STIPULATION dated April 5 and 17, 1961, before the Merrimack County, New Hampshire, superior court, to wit: " [Tasha Tudor McCready] shall at times convenient to herself, during the calendar year 1961, complete and deliver to the publisher appropriate illustrations for an additional volume known as "Flatfoot" written by [Thomas Leighton McCready, Jr.] and to be published as a further work in the Farrar Straus and Cudahy series of books. . . such illustrations to be comparable in number and nature to the art work done ... for other works in the said series heretofore published."

Flatfoot is mentioned in Yankee Magazine, October 1957, page 38 as well as two of the books listed above. In Adventures of a Beagle, "Though Pekin White, Biggity Bantam, Mr. Stubbs, and Increase Rabbit had not yet come to live at Warner Farm when May arrived, Ralph's flock of Toulouse geese was already there. May soon became fast friends with the gander, Flatfoot, and together they shared the duty of sounding a warning at the approach of any stranger, whether it was animal, person, or car.   Flatfoot's loud honking, mixed with May's barking, made a splendid noise, and dog and gander seemed to enjoy helping each other."

At the end of the series, the McCreadys divorced.   Tasha's long-time editor Eunice Blake retired from Lippincott and introduced Tudor to her successor Ann Beneduce.   Together Tudor and Beneduce began to chart new and more satisfying artistic journeys together that produced more fine books.