W. E. Cule
Encyclopedia
William Edward Cule was a British
author of children's books and several books for adults on Christian themes. In all, he wrote some thirty books encompassing a number of popular genres - public school stories, adventure yarns, fairy tales, novels and Christian allegories and fable. His best children's books show an imaginative faculty of a high order and are soundly crafted, befitting his profession as a magazine and book editor. Cule's most popular Christian works are The Man at the Gate of the World and Sir Knight of the Splendid Way, the latter recently reprinted by Lamplighter Publishing in the United States.
in Wales. His family moved to Cardiff when his father was appointed as a customs excise officer. The family were devout Baptists and Cule was a committed Christian from an early age, later becoming a Sunday school
teacher.
After leaving school locally, Cule worked as a journalist in Cardiff and Porthcawl
. His first public school stories were published in the Boy's Own Paper
and in the Young England magazine
. Collections of these stories were subsequently issued in book form, the first such collection being Barfield's Blazer. He was appointed editor of a magazine for Sunday school teachers and received encouragement from Andrew Melrose
the publisher for the Sunday School Union. Melville published Cule's first two books in 1899 - Child Voices, a collection of sketches and stories about children, and Sir Constant Knight of the Great King, an allegory of the Christian life. The same year, W.& R.Chambers
published his fairyland book Mabel's Prince Wonderful, whose heroine was named for Cule's daughter Mabel.
In 1903 Cule moved to London
to take up a position in the publishing department of the National Sunday School Union. He continued to write boys' stories while also contributing serials to The Child's Own Magazinewhich were later published in the "Red Nursery" series of children's books. The White Caravan, Two Little New Zealanders and Mr Crusoe's Island are examples of serials that later became popular books.
In 1906, Cule's youngest daughter Dilys died of a childhood illness. A touching account of how the family rallied to furnish a doll's house for her is given in Dilys in the Christmas Garden. Her death is also alluded to in a story from the fairy tale collection The Rose-Coloured Bus, which tells of a grieving woodcarver who makes a doll's house for his daughter.
In 1906 Cule was appointed on the recommendation of Andrew Melville and Rev Carey Bonner
to head the publishing activities of the Baptist Missionary Society
(BMS). Cule worked as an editor of missionary publications, including the monthly Missionary Herald and a children's magazine Wonderlands. He was instrumental in setting up the Carey Press
as the BMS's commercial publishing arm. Cule remained with the BMS until his retirement, combining his professional editorial and publishing activities with his career as a popular writer.
Cule published five volumes of public school stories, which went through numerous reprints. All are good-humoured and entertaining stories with plots that often turn on the personal foibles of the characters, whether boys or schoolmasters. Cule is a moralist but a genial one: his stories uphold the public school values of honesty, generosity, sportsmanship and service to others. Rollinson and I, the story of a public school boy accused of an offence he did not commit and sent to Coventry, is a full-length novel that explores in greater depth the themes of personal integrity, moral courage and loyalty to friends. The White Knights is not a school story but tells of three boys who elect to live by the values of medieval chivalry
. They realise this ideal through acts of service to others. The enemy the "knights" have to fight is the innate human tendency towards selfishness. As this appealing and warm-hearted story unfolds, we are made aware of the Great War being fought just across the English Channel. In the Secret Sea, originally published as a serial in the Boy's Own Paper, is a maritime adventure yarn and better told than many examples of this genre.
Cule has a sure touch with fairy tale
and fantasy
. Mabel's Prince Wonderful tells of a little girl's visit to the land of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, where she becomes caught up in the story of Cinderella
and Prince Charming
. His later work,The Other Side of Nod is the story of a boy transported by a white car into the fairy tale land of Nod. Neither story is an allegory
but a careful reading of them reveals that for Cule (as with George Macdonald
) the "storybook world" of the imagination is linked to the Christian concept of the Kingdom of Heaven. These must be counted among Cule's most appealing children's books and worthy of reprinting. Some of the original fairy tales in the Rose-Coloured Bus are equally fine although the collection as a whole is less inspired.
Child Voices is a collection of whimsical sketches of children which Cule in his Preface says are not intended for children's reading. "For the greater part . . . they are simple records of incidents observed and children's conversations overheard. In other cases, stories have been framed upon a fanciful child's views and opinions of various matters. The result is dedicated, in all humility, to those who know and love their children."
Two Little New Zealanders, The White Caravan and the House of the Ogress are examples of Cule's children's fiction at its best. They reveal his understanding of children's emotional needs and sympathy for their plight when they fail to receive nurturing love from adults. These are well-crafted children's stories, which unfold naturally and reach an emotionally satisfying conclusion. Cule is good at creating memorable locales for his stories, whether the peaceful lanes and villages of Southern England or the bustle of Edwardian London, and today these stories have a distinct period charm.
Less successful are the serials Cule wrote for Wonderlands (under the pseudonym of Edward Seaman) and later published as books. Both The Parliament Man and The Adventures of Peter Playne are spoilt by religious sentimentality and didacticism, as are the short stories The Special Messenger and Peter, Bingo and Those Others. Under Eastern Skies, a retelling of stories about Old Testament
kings is a workmanlike but otherwise undistinguished book. The Bells of Moulton
- a history of the BMS for young people - could have been a dull subject but is entertainingly told by combining history, fiction and travelogue.
Cule's novelette The Prince of Zell is a curiosity - a Ruritania
n romance with a wildly improbable plot and a denouement that strains credulity to the limit. However, the short stories included as a makeweight reveal Cule's talent for social comedy in the manner of H.G. Wells. Another such story - "The Auburn Emperor" - appears in Six Roads to Bethlehem. No indication is given as to where the stories in this collection were first published - they apparently come from different stages in Cule's career and make an awkward and uneven collection.
Another curiosity is the parable Thy Son Liveth: A Vision of the War, published in 1915. It tells of an unnamed son of an unnamed English couple who perishes in the Great War, dashing the parents' hopes for his great future. Though unsatisfying as a fable, it expresses Cule's deep conviction as a Christian that life continues after death.
Cule's two masterpieces are his allegorical Sir Knight of the Splendid Way and the fable
of The Man at the Gate of the World.
Sir Knight of the Splendid Way is an extensive reworking of his earlier book Sir Constant Knight of the Great King. An allegory of the Christian life, it tells of the knighting of Sir Constant in the Chapel of the Valley of Decision (his conversion) and the six "adventures" he undergoes on his way to the City of the King (eternal life), each testing his courage, fortitude and compassion for others. Drawing for its inspiration on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the Arthur
ian tradition of the questing knight and the New Testament
epistles, it is a spiritually profound and richly detailed work, written in a language suggestive of another era with some of the finest examples of word painting Cule ever achieved.
Sir Knight of the Splendid Way was published with distinguished illustrations by Joseph Finnemore
.
The Man at the Gate of the World is the story of Caspar, one of the three magi
of tradition who follow the star to the stable in Bethlehem
. It tells of how Caspar subsequently forswears his wealth and privilege to stand at a city gate washing the feet of weary travellers, thus fulfilling Christ's mandate to his disciples. Cule tells us he meditated on this story for some time before writing it. He wondered whether to publish it after reading Henry Van Dyke
's parable The Other Wise Man but decided his "Story of the Star" had its own spiritual truth that he was impelled to share.
A popular Christmas
book, The Man at the Gate of the World was published in England with line illustrations by the distinguished painter Estella Canziani
and in the United States with illustrations by Albert R. Thayer
. It has been anthologised with the Van Dyke work.
Both works have been translated into other European languages.
Barfield's Blazer and Other School Stories, Andrew Melrose, London, 1900
The Captain's Fags, Sunday School Union, London, 1901
The Black Fifteen and Other School Stories, 1906
Rollinson and I: The Story of a Summer Term, Religious Tract Society, London, 1913
Rodborough School, (illustrated by Edgar Alfred Holloway
), Religious Tract Society, London, 1915
Baker Secundus and Some Other Fellows (illustrated by Arthur Twidle
) Boy's Own Paper Office, London, 1917
The White Knights 1919
In the Secret Sea, Sheldon Press, London, 1934
Fairy Tale and Fantasy
Child Voices, (illustrated by Charles Robinson
), Andrew Melrose, London, 1899
Mabel's Prince Wonderful: Or a Trip to Storyland, (illustrated by Will G. Mein
), W&R Chambers, London, Edinburgh, 1899
The Rose-Coloured Bus and Other Leaves from Mabel's Fairy Book, (illustrated by Florence Meyerheim), Andrew Melrose, London, 1906
The Other Side of Nod, 1924
Children's and Juvenile Fiction
Three Little Wise Men, (illustrated by Florence Meyerheim
), Sunday School Union, London, 1896
The Kingdoms of this World, (illustrated by H. L. Shindler), Sunday School Union, London, 1904
The Lost Prince and the Golden Lamp, Sunday School Union, London, c1900.
Tom and Company, Limited, Sunday School Union, London, 1908
Two Little New Zealanders, (illustrated by Rosa C. Petherick
), Sunday School Union, London, 1909
The Magic Uncle, Sunday School Union, London, 1911
Santa Claus at the Castle, (illustrated by Florence Meyerheim), Sunday School Union, London,1913
Mr Crusoe's Island, (illustrated by Watson Charlton
), Sunday School Union, London, 1914
The White Caravan, (illustrated by Brian Hatton
), Sunday School Union, London, 1914
The House of the Ogress, (illustrated by George Morrow
), 1921
The Indian Storybook for Boys and Girls, Carey Press, London,c1921
The Adventures of Peter Playne, Carey Press, London, 1923
Peter, Bingo and Those Others Carey Press, London, 1926
The Special Messenger Carey Press, London, 1927
The Angel at the Door 1930
The Parliament Man: A Story of Greyhound Court and Other Places, (illustrated by Ernest Prater), Carey Press, London, 1931
Bible Stories and Missionary History
Under Eastern Skies, John F. Shaw, London, 1913
The Bells of Moulton: A History of the Baptist Missionary Society for Young People, The Carey Press, London, 1944
Christian Allegory and Fable
Sir Constant: Knight of the Great King, (illustrated by Amelia Bauerle
), Andrew Melrose, London, 1899
Thy Son Liveth: A Vision of the War. Nisbet & Co., London, 1915
Sir Knight of the Splendid Way, (illustrated by J. Finnemore) Religious Tract Society, London, 1926
The Man at the Gate of the World: A Story of the Star', (illustrated by Estelle Canzioni), 1929
Romance and Short Stories
The Prince of Zell: A Romance 1908
Six Roads to Bethlehem, Sunday School Union, London, 1944
Memorial
Dilys in the Christmas Garden Bagster, London, 1931 (reprinted in Six Roads to Bethlehem)
Edited Works
The Missionary Speaker and Reader A Collection of Recitations, Dialogues, Readings, and Responsive Services, The Carey Press, London, 1910
Everyland for Boys and Girls (children's annuals, illustrated by B. F. Gribble
), The Carey Press, London, 1925-1926
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author of children's books and several books for adults on Christian themes. In all, he wrote some thirty books encompassing a number of popular genres - public school stories, adventure yarns, fairy tales, novels and Christian allegories and fable. His best children's books show an imaginative faculty of a high order and are soundly crafted, befitting his profession as a magazine and book editor. Cule's most popular Christian works are The Man at the Gate of the World and Sir Knight of the Splendid Way, the latter recently reprinted by Lamplighter Publishing in the United States.
Life and works
Cule was born in 1870 in the village of St Nicholas near the city of CardiffCardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
in Wales. His family moved to Cardiff when his father was appointed as a customs excise officer. The family were devout Baptists and Cule was a committed Christian from an early age, later becoming a Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
teacher.
After leaving school locally, Cule worked as a journalist in Cardiff and Porthcawl
Porthcawl
Porthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles southeast of Swansea...
. His first public school stories were published in the Boy's Own Paper
Boy's Own Paper
The Boy's Own Paper was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967.-Publishing history:The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society as a means to encourage younger children to read and also instil Christian morals...
and in the Young England magazine
Young England magazine
Young England: A Illustrated Magazine for Boys Throughout the English-Speaking World was a British story paper aimed at a similar audience to the Boy's Own Paper, It was published from 1880 until 1937.- Publishing history :...
. Collections of these stories were subsequently issued in book form, the first such collection being Barfield's Blazer. He was appointed editor of a magazine for Sunday school teachers and received encouragement from Andrew Melrose
Andrew Melrose Publisher
Andrew Melrose was a British publisher. Although he was noted for publishing theological works, he was also active in promoting new fiction, and offered a substantial cash prize for the best first novel submitted to his firm....
the publisher for the Sunday School Union. Melville published Cule's first two books in 1899 - Child Voices, a collection of sketches and stories about children, and Sir Constant Knight of the Great King, an allegory of the Christian life. The same year, W.& R.Chambers
Chambers Harrap
Chambers Harrap Publishers is a reference publisher formerly based in Edinburgh, Scotland, which held the property rights of the venerable W.R.Chambers Publishers and its competitor George G. Harrap and Company .-History of Chambers:Chambers was founded as "W. & R...
published his fairyland book Mabel's Prince Wonderful, whose heroine was named for Cule's daughter Mabel.
In 1903 Cule moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to take up a position in the publishing department of the National Sunday School Union. He continued to write boys' stories while also contributing serials to The Child's Own Magazinewhich were later published in the "Red Nursery" series of children's books. The White Caravan, Two Little New Zealanders and Mr Crusoe's Island are examples of serials that later became popular books.
In 1906, Cule's youngest daughter Dilys died of a childhood illness. A touching account of how the family rallied to furnish a doll's house for her is given in Dilys in the Christmas Garden. Her death is also alluded to in a story from the fairy tale collection The Rose-Coloured Bus, which tells of a grieving woodcarver who makes a doll's house for his daughter.
In 1906 Cule was appointed on the recommendation of Andrew Melville and Rev Carey Bonner
Carey Bonner
Carey Bonner, Rev was a Baptist minister who served as the General Secretary of the National Sunday School Union from 1900 until 1929 and as Joint Secretary of the World Sunday School Association. He was born in Southwark, Surrey. A composer and hymnist, he wrote and arranged hymns, choral works...
to head the publishing activities of the Baptist Missionary Society
Baptist Missionary Society
rightBMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society...
(BMS). Cule worked as an editor of missionary publications, including the monthly Missionary Herald and a children's magazine Wonderlands. He was instrumental in setting up the Carey Press
Carey Press
The Carey Press was founded in the early 20th century as the commercial publishing arm of the Baptist Missionary Society and was named after the society's founder William Carey . The founding editor was W E Cule...
as the BMS's commercial publishing arm. Cule remained with the BMS until his retirement, combining his professional editorial and publishing activities with his career as a popular writer.
Cule published five volumes of public school stories, which went through numerous reprints. All are good-humoured and entertaining stories with plots that often turn on the personal foibles of the characters, whether boys or schoolmasters. Cule is a moralist but a genial one: his stories uphold the public school values of honesty, generosity, sportsmanship and service to others. Rollinson and I, the story of a public school boy accused of an offence he did not commit and sent to Coventry, is a full-length novel that explores in greater depth the themes of personal integrity, moral courage and loyalty to friends. The White Knights is not a school story but tells of three boys who elect to live by the values of medieval chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...
. They realise this ideal through acts of service to others. The enemy the "knights" have to fight is the innate human tendency towards selfishness. As this appealing and warm-hearted story unfolds, we are made aware of the Great War being fought just across the English Channel. In the Secret Sea, originally published as a serial in the Boy's Own Paper, is a maritime adventure yarn and better told than many examples of this genre.
Cule has a sure touch with fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
. Mabel's Prince Wonderful tells of a little girl's visit to the land of fairy tales and nursery rhymes, where she becomes caught up in the story of Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
and Prince Charming
Prince Charming
Prince Charming is a stock character who appears in a number of fairy tales. He is the prince who comes to rescue of the damsel in distress, and stereotypically, must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell...
. His later work,The Other Side of Nod is the story of a boy transported by a white car into the fairy tale land of Nod. Neither story is an allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
but a careful reading of them reveals that for Cule (as with George Macdonald
George MacDonald
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...
) the "storybook world" of the imagination is linked to the Christian concept of the Kingdom of Heaven. These must be counted among Cule's most appealing children's books and worthy of reprinting. Some of the original fairy tales in the Rose-Coloured Bus are equally fine although the collection as a whole is less inspired.
Child Voices is a collection of whimsical sketches of children which Cule in his Preface says are not intended for children's reading. "For the greater part . . . they are simple records of incidents observed and children's conversations overheard. In other cases, stories have been framed upon a fanciful child's views and opinions of various matters. The result is dedicated, in all humility, to those who know and love their children."
Two Little New Zealanders, The White Caravan and the House of the Ogress are examples of Cule's children's fiction at its best. They reveal his understanding of children's emotional needs and sympathy for their plight when they fail to receive nurturing love from adults. These are well-crafted children's stories, which unfold naturally and reach an emotionally satisfying conclusion. Cule is good at creating memorable locales for his stories, whether the peaceful lanes and villages of Southern England or the bustle of Edwardian London, and today these stories have a distinct period charm.
Less successful are the serials Cule wrote for Wonderlands (under the pseudonym of Edward Seaman) and later published as books. Both The Parliament Man and The Adventures of Peter Playne are spoilt by religious sentimentality and didacticism, as are the short stories The Special Messenger and Peter, Bingo and Those Others. Under Eastern Skies, a retelling of stories about Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
kings is a workmanlike but otherwise undistinguished book. The Bells of Moulton
Moulton
- Places in the United Kingdom :In England*Moulton, Cheshire*Moulton, Lincolnshire**Moulton Windmill*Moulton St Mary, Norfolk*Moulton, Northamptonshire**Moulton College, agricultural college**Moulton Park, industrial estate*Moulton, Suffolk...
- a history of the BMS for young people - could have been a dull subject but is entertainingly told by combining history, fiction and travelogue.
Cule's novelette The Prince of Zell is a curiosity - a Ruritania
Ruritania
Ruritania is a fictional country in central Europe which forms the setting for three books by Anthony Hope: The Prisoner of Zenda , The Heart of Princess Osra , and Rupert of Hentzau...
n romance with a wildly improbable plot and a denouement that strains credulity to the limit. However, the short stories included as a makeweight reveal Cule's talent for social comedy in the manner of H.G. Wells. Another such story - "The Auburn Emperor" - appears in Six Roads to Bethlehem. No indication is given as to where the stories in this collection were first published - they apparently come from different stages in Cule's career and make an awkward and uneven collection.
Another curiosity is the parable Thy Son Liveth: A Vision of the War, published in 1915. It tells of an unnamed son of an unnamed English couple who perishes in the Great War, dashing the parents' hopes for his great future. Though unsatisfying as a fable, it expresses Cule's deep conviction as a Christian that life continues after death.
Cule's two masterpieces are his allegorical Sir Knight of the Splendid Way and the fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
of The Man at the Gate of the World.
Sir Knight of the Splendid Way is an extensive reworking of his earlier book Sir Constant Knight of the Great King. An allegory of the Christian life, it tells of the knighting of Sir Constant in the Chapel of the Valley of Decision (his conversion) and the six "adventures" he undergoes on his way to the City of the King (eternal life), each testing his courage, fortitude and compassion for others. Drawing for its inspiration on Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
ian tradition of the questing knight and the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
epistles, it is a spiritually profound and richly detailed work, written in a language suggestive of another era with some of the finest examples of word painting Cule ever achieved.
Sir Knight of the Splendid Way was published with distinguished illustrations by Joseph Finnemore
Joseph Finnemore
Joseph Finnemore was born in Birmingham in 1860 and educated at the Birmingham School of Art. He was a prolific book and magazine illustrator, who worked particularly for the Religious Tract Society....
.
The Man at the Gate of the World is the story of Caspar, one of the three magi
Magi
Magi is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote a follower of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which...
of tradition who follow the star to the stable in Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
. It tells of how Caspar subsequently forswears his wealth and privilege to stand at a city gate washing the feet of weary travellers, thus fulfilling Christ's mandate to his disciples. Cule tells us he meditated on this story for some time before writing it. He wondered whether to publish it after reading Henry Van Dyke
Henry van Dyke
Henry Jackson van Dyke was an American author, educator, and clergyman.-Biography:Henry van Dyke was born on November 11, 1852 in Germantown, Pennsylvania in the United States....
's parable The Other Wise Man but decided his "Story of the Star" had its own spiritual truth that he was impelled to share.
A popular Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
book, The Man at the Gate of the World was published in England with line illustrations by the distinguished painter Estella Canziani
Estella Canziani
Estella Canziani was a British portrait and landscape painter, an interior decorator and a travel writer and folklorist.- Life and works :...
and in the United States with illustrations by Albert R. Thayer
Albert R. Thayer
Albert R. Thayer was an American painter and etcher. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, he studied at the Boston Museum School and at the Art Students League in New York. His teachers include Edmund Tarbell, Eric Page and Aldro Hibbard...
. It has been anthologised with the Van Dyke work.
Both works have been translated into other European languages.
Works by W E Cule
School Stories and AdventureBarfield's Blazer and Other School Stories, Andrew Melrose, London, 1900
The Captain's Fags, Sunday School Union, London, 1901
The Black Fifteen and Other School Stories, 1906
Rollinson and I: The Story of a Summer Term, Religious Tract Society, London, 1913
Rodborough School, (illustrated by Edgar Alfred Holloway
Edgar Alfred Holloway
Edgar Alfred Holloway was a noted illustrator of children's books. He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. He became a war artist during the Boer War. He excelled in military uniform portraits and he worked extensively for Gale and Polden producing military uniform pictures for their postcard series...
), Religious Tract Society, London, 1915
Baker Secundus and Some Other Fellows (illustrated by Arthur Twidle
Arthur Twidle
Arthur Twidle was an English illustrator and artist best known for his illustrations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books....
) Boy's Own Paper Office, London, 1917
The White Knights 1919
In the Secret Sea, Sheldon Press, London, 1934
Fairy Tale and Fantasy
Child Voices, (illustrated by Charles Robinson
Charles Robinson (illustrator)
Charles Robinson was a prolific British book illustrator.Born in Islington in October 1870, London, he was the son of an illustrator and his brothers Thomas Heath Robinson and William Heath Robinson also became illustrators. He served an apprenticeship as a printer and took art lessons in the...
), Andrew Melrose, London, 1899
Mabel's Prince Wonderful: Or a Trip to Storyland, (illustrated by Will G. Mein
Will G. Mein
Will G. Mein was a British book illustrator who flourished in the late 19th to early 20th century. He lived in London from around the turn of the century.- Life and works :Mein was born in Kelso, Roxburgh, Scotland...
), W&R Chambers, London, Edinburgh, 1899
The Rose-Coloured Bus and Other Leaves from Mabel's Fairy Book, (illustrated by Florence Meyerheim), Andrew Melrose, London, 1906
The Other Side of Nod, 1924
Children's and Juvenile Fiction
Three Little Wise Men, (illustrated by Florence Meyerheim
Florence Meyerheim
Florence Meyerheim was a British illustrator of children's books. She was born in Barton upon Irwell. She illustrated books by a group of contemporary authors who were associated with the Religious Tract Society, the Sunday School Union and publisher Andrew Melrose, one of the first being W.E....
), Sunday School Union, London, 1896
The Kingdoms of this World, (illustrated by H. L. Shindler), Sunday School Union, London, 1904
The Lost Prince and the Golden Lamp, Sunday School Union, London, c1900.
Tom and Company, Limited, Sunday School Union, London, 1908
Two Little New Zealanders, (illustrated by Rosa C. Petherick
Rosa C. Petherick
Rosa Clementina Petherick was a British book illustrator. Born in Addiscombe, Croydon, she was the eldest of five daughters of the artist Horace William Petherick . She contributed illustrations to numerous children's story books, annuals and periodicals, particularly those produced by Blackie...
), Sunday School Union, London, 1909
The Magic Uncle, Sunday School Union, London, 1911
Santa Claus at the Castle, (illustrated by Florence Meyerheim), Sunday School Union, London,1913
Mr Crusoe's Island, (illustrated by Watson Charlton
Watson Charlton
Watson Charlton was a British illustrator of children's books. He was born in Sunderland, Durham, the son of the painter John William Charlton .- Selected works illustrated by Watson Charlton :...
), Sunday School Union, London, 1914
The White Caravan, (illustrated by Brian Hatton
Brian Hatton
Brian Hatton was a British artist. He was born in Broomy Hill, Herefordshire, and killed in action during the First World War. His works showed considerable promise and include local landscapes, family portraits, figure studies and book illustrations...
), Sunday School Union, London, 1914
The House of the Ogress, (illustrated by George Morrow
George Morrow (illustrator)
George Morrow was a cartoonist and book illustrator. He was the son of a painter and decorator from Clifton Street in west Belfast...
), 1921
The Indian Storybook for Boys and Girls, Carey Press, London,c1921
The Adventures of Peter Playne, Carey Press, London, 1923
Peter, Bingo and Those Others Carey Press, London, 1926
The Special Messenger Carey Press, London, 1927
The Angel at the Door 1930
The Parliament Man: A Story of Greyhound Court and Other Places, (illustrated by Ernest Prater), Carey Press, London, 1931
Bible Stories and Missionary History
Under Eastern Skies, John F. Shaw, London, 1913
The Bells of Moulton: A History of the Baptist Missionary Society for Young People, The Carey Press, London, 1944
Christian Allegory and Fable
Sir Constant: Knight of the Great King, (illustrated by Amelia Bauerle
Amelia Bauerle
Amelia Bauerle was a London-born painter, illustrator and etcher who was also known as Amelia Bowerley. She was the daughter of the German artist Karl Wilhelm Bauerle. She studied at the South Kensington School of Art and the Slade before travelling in Italy and Germany...
), Andrew Melrose, London, 1899
Thy Son Liveth: A Vision of the War. Nisbet & Co., London, 1915
Sir Knight of the Splendid Way, (illustrated by J. Finnemore) Religious Tract Society, London, 1926
The Man at the Gate of the World: A Story of the Star', (illustrated by Estelle Canzioni), 1929
Romance and Short Stories
The Prince of Zell: A Romance 1908
Six Roads to Bethlehem, Sunday School Union, London, 1944
Memorial
Dilys in the Christmas Garden Bagster, London, 1931 (reprinted in Six Roads to Bethlehem)
Edited Works
The Missionary Speaker and Reader A Collection of Recitations, Dialogues, Readings, and Responsive Services, The Carey Press, London, 1910
Everyland for Boys and Girls (children's annuals, illustrated by B. F. Gribble
B. F. Gribble
B. F. Gribble RBC SMA was a prolific British marine artist and illustrator.- Life and works :...
), The Carey Press, London, 1925-1926