Shakespeare's Influence on Children
Shakespeare and the Heart of a Child was written by Gertrude Elizabeth Taylor Slaughter (1870-1963). The Macmillan Company of New York published the book as a first edition in October of 1922. Frederic ‘Eric’ Pape (1870-1938) was the illustrator of the book. The book is a juvenile fiction “story of two children and their interests in Shakespeare both at home and abroad where they visited the scenes of Shakespeare’s life and plays. Charmingly told of interest to adults, especially mothers, as well as to children”. Physically, the book is in good condition, considering its age. It contains a hard, celestial blue cover that has slight bending on the corners. The title, and the author's name, is imprinted on the front cover in metallic gold. Positioned beneath is also a small illustration of a clown sporting a poet’s laurel. It measures approximately 5 ½ by 7 ½ inches.
The 262 pages of this book are deckled and its contents is electrotyped. The majority of the book is written in 12pt Times New Roman font, excluding quotes from Shakespeare himself that are written in a smaller pt. of the same font. There are four blank pages at the end of the book, presumably for note taking. Inside, the endpapers are covered with a light blue and cream silhouette of a majestic, whimsical scene including: fairies, royalty, soldiers, a stage, and many trees with low hanging moss. There is a three-page prologue starting on page xii. Page xvii begins the table of contents, which separates the book into the following sections: Shakespeare by the Sea, Shakespeare in Italy, Shakespeare in France, In Shakespeare’s Country, and With Shakespeare at Home.
Pages xix-xii contains a list of illustration titles and the page on which they can be found. There are multiple illustrations in the book, but only one of them is printed in color (and also on a much thinner, glossier paper). This picture can be found on page x, and shows a full page color illustration of several ships entering a waterway lined with buildings and includes the caption “Argosies With Portly Sail.” (A reference to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice). Additionally, there are illustrations at the beginning of each chapter (with the exception of chapter 4), which depict various nature scenes that typically incorporate birds. Also, at the beginning of the chapter, note that the first letter, of the first sentence, is in a much larger font and, sometimes, boasts a small bit of illustrated festooning atop the letter.
Our creative interpretation of Shakespeare and the Heart of a Child is displayed in the PowerPoint format, with each slide being a picture.
Shakespeare and the Heart of a Child is depicted here through photography, particularly photography of nature. When first viewing the object, our group spent a lot of time looking at the images contained in the book before we even began to focus on any other aspects. It became obvious to us that the author’s decision to include an image with each of the 22 chapters was vital to the story contained in the object, therefore we chose to represent each chapter with a different image and pair it with a quote, just as the author did. Since the scenes and images had such a great impact on us, we chose to create the same experience for the viewers of our project. Moreover, we want the viewer to be drawn in by studying the images, not just the words.
Air, sunshine, and nature are apart of a child’s everyday life, and since this book is intended to create a desire for children to want to experience Shakespeare, it is fitting to use nature scenes as a pleasant representation of Shakespeare in The Heart of a Child. Through the story itself, the reader will absorb information concerning the setting of many Shakespeare plays. This item, Shakespeare and the Heart of a Child, will leave readers with a desire to know Shakespeare; therefore we wanted to leave readers with a desire to know this item. We hope that the images will create an experience, an experience that causes the viewer to first react to the images, and then think about the quotes that they are paired with. The visual ques are used to demonstrate, not describe the visual images included in the book.
These photographs and quotes are to beckon you to come along; an alluring invitation to ponder the idea that nature is true to its self, it does not have the option to be anything other than what is.
