New Book About Louis Wain, the Cat Artist Who Went Insane

by Stephen J. Gertz

Cat lovers have something to purr about with the release of Louis Wain's Cats, a new book on  the celebrated cat artist who went 'round the bend but, before and afterward, created some of the most memorable and endearing anthropomorphic cat images ever produced; there are Louis Wain cats and  all the others, jealous not to have been drawn by him. 

Published to accompany an upcoming exhibition, Louis Wain and the Summer Cat Show, August 14 - September 4, 2011, at Chris Beetles Art Gallery in London, the book includes over 300 beautiful color images, many shown for the first time, brought to life with text by Chris Beetles, the leading authority on Louis Wain.

This book comprises a comprehensive survey of the life and work of one of the best known cat artists of the Victorian and Edwardian period, including a new biography, and catalogue raisonné of Louis Wain’s Lucky Futurist Mascots, his unique ceramic creations.

The book is a companion piece to Louis Wain The Man Who Drew Cats by Rodney Dale, published by Chris Beetles in 2006.

The first 1000 copies of this first edition will be signed and numbered by Chris Beetles.

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BEETLES, Chris. Louis Wain's Cats. London: Worth Press, 2011. Square quarto (260 x 260 mm). 255 pp. 411 plates, over 300 in color. Hardcover. £25.00 ($40.80) plus shipping. To order contact Chris Beetles Gallery.

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Of related interest:

Two Very Rare Books For Cat Lovers Only (A Naughty Story).

Unrecorded Arthur Rackham Drawing Found in Unrecorded Louis Wain Book.

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Unrecorded Arthur Rackham Drawing Found in Unrecorded Louis Wain Edition

by Stephen J. Gertz

Anytime an unrecorded book illustration by Arthur Rackham comes to light, it's news. 

Buried within Cats At Play, a book illustrated by, amongst others, cat artist, Louis Wain, is an unheralded black and white text illustration, on page forty, of four chickens in various states of distress as they observe, in high dudgeon and with no little annoyance, a cat within their food bucket chowing down the chicken feed. This is commonly known as kitty chutzpah. And at the lower left of the bucket, as small as can be, are Rackham's initials as typically drawn. 

Latimore and Haskell, and Riall make no mention of this illustration in their Rackham bibliographies, and it was unknown to the Arthur Rackham Society when we inquired.

This edition (the copy I handled with a school prize label dated December 22, 1904), is, in the absence of contradictory evidence, the true first and unrecorded, with no copies in institutional holdings worldwide. It is not noted in Rodney Dale’s Louis Wain: The Man Who Drew Cats, nor in Ellery Wood’s bibliography within Dale. As noted above, it was certainly unknown to  Latimore & Haskell, and Riall. 

Note Rackham's "AR" at base of bucket, left.

At the time of this book's approximate publication, Rackham had already had work published, mostly under his name with credit on the title page, providing single or multiple illustrations for, amongst others, To the Other Side (1893); Isis Very Much Unveiled (1894); The Dolly Dialogues (1894); The Zankiwank (1896); The Money Spinner (1896); Two Old Ladies... (1897); Captain Castle (1897); Through a Glass Lightly (1897); Charles O'Malley (1897); The Castle Inn (1898); Evelina (1898); The Ingoldsby Legends (1898); Gulliver's Travels (1900); Faithful Friends (1901); More Tales From the Stumps (1902); The Grey House on the Hill (1903); The Greek Heroes (1903); Red Pottage (1904); and The Peradventures of Private Pagett (1904). 

That Rackham would accept a commission to provide a single text line drawing to this book with no more credit than his microscopic initials should not come as a surprise. Rackham was hustling for work wherever he could find it; good reviews and regular exposure were not enough to keep him fully employed with money in his pocket. And none of the other illustrators for the book received credit beyond their initials or full signatures to their contributions.

And so we have a previously unknown Rackham during his transitional period, when his fairies and goblins were emerging but had not yet fully vanquished the simple, pay-the-bills work of his early years.

This book was later issued by Blackie & Son, 1917, and Alexandria Publications, c. 1920, in what appear to be abridged editions; the Blackie & Son edition collates to only twelve pages. It is unknown to me whether these later editions contain the Rackham drawing.

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WAIN, Louis. RACKHAM, Arthur. SMITH, H. Officer. GLADWIN, May, et al. Cats At Play. London: John F. Shaw, n.d. [c. 1900-1904].

First edition, unrecorded and scarce,. Small quarto (9 5/8 x 7 1/8 in;  245 x 180 mm). Illustrated throughout in black and white and color, with fifteen drawings by Louis Wain, and an unrecorded text drawing by Arthur Rackham (so initialed) on page 40.

Publisher's pictorial boards. Beveled edges. School prize label to front paste down endpaper dated Dec. 22, 1904. 160 pp with  advertising as endpapers.

Cf. Wood 34 and 35, as recorded in Dale, Louis Wain: The Man Who Drew Cats, p. 137.

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Of related interest:

Two Very Rare Books For Cat Lover's Only (A Naughty Story).

The Riddle of Arthur Rackham's "Faithful Friends" Solved?

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Images courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks. The book sold instantly.
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Two Very Rare Books For Cat Lovers Only (A Naughty Story)

by Stephen J. Gertz

In New York City, c. 1935, an  anonymously written erotic novella was clandestinely published in parts titled, M. Fontaine's Establishment. The narrative is episodic: for a fee, interesting things are arranged for the masked patrons of M. Fontaine's establishment, a specialty brothel.

You will, then, I prithee, forgive me after I confess that when a copy of Madame Tabby's Establishment, a book I was unfamiliar with, recently passed through my hands I immediately thought, Cathouse!

"'Run," shrieked the court."

And, indeed, Madame Tabby's Establishment (1886) is a cathouse of sorts, a finishing school for kitties seeking to be all that they can be and let their feline flag fly.

"'Hang the council,' said Jumpy Wumpy."

It's the earliest book illustrated by the great cat painter, Louis Wain, and extremely rare. OCLC records only ten copies in libraries worldwide, and only one copy has come to auction within the last thirty-six years, the copy I  pawed.

"The animal! The animal!"

At the end of the last century, Louis Wain (1860-1939), the Edwardian cat artist who went mad, became a household name as an illustrator of cats, whom he depicted in all sorts of activities, from skating and playing cricket to driving motor cars, attending dances, and playing musical instruments.

"The party trotted out of the wood."

"From 1883, Wain began to draw cats as they had never been drawn before, cats in humorous guises, in human situations, but always beautifully handled, although he was sometimes forced to draw dogs before he became well-known!" (Houfe, Simon. The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800-1914).

"Shortears began and sung a solo. Then all the cats
 joined and sung the chorus to Madame's satisfaction."

Wain's "artistic skill had attracted some attention, and in 1886 he was asked by Macmillan to illustrate a children's book, Madame Tabby's Establishment....this book tells the story of a little girl, Diana, who, having found herself accepted in the Cat's Court (her grandmother being the late owner of the King of Cats) is sent to Madame Tabby's establishment to learn how to behave like a cat...Madam Tabby's Establishment was published in the autumn of 1886 and became quite popular in the nursery" (Dale, Rodney. Louis Wain The Man Who Drew Cats, pp. 19-20).

"Diana found herself opposite a raised dais."

"He invented a cat style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves" (H.G. Wells).


"Away went the cat and returned with a piece of bread wrapped in a leaf."

By the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, however, Wain began to exhibit symptoms of mental instability that manifest itself in his cat portraits; by the late 1920s his mental illness was full-blown and his cats went completely 'round the bend.

Painted during Wain's later mental illness.

Booktryst readers who also attended the Grateful Dead concert at Legion Stadium in Wilmington, Los Angeles on  December 26, 1970 while post-Noël tripping on 400 mgs of pure Orange Sunshine will immediately recognize the kitty in the Wain illustration above as the shape-shifting creature with shimmering aura that danced dos-e-dos oh so close in the aisle then disappeared "to the bathroom" during the last minutes of Jerry Garcia's eternal (or so it seemed) solo on Truckin', never to be seen again. 

She still looks good to me. But I want my copy of the I Ching back.

•  •  •

It's raining scarce Wain on my desk and while it was likely a random accident I prefer to think, given the wry irony, that Divine Providence placed the following delightfully charming volume immediately below Madame Tabby's Establishment in my cataloging pile. It's an even rarer book, that, just as Madame Tabby's  has nothing to do with the business at M. Fontaine's establishment, I assure you has absolutely nothing to do with Storyville, New Orleans' fabled red-light district.

Queenie (at left), however, does sing the blues.
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[WAIN, Louis, illustrator]. KARI (pseudonym of Caroline Hughes). Madame Tabby's Establishment. Illustrated by L. Wain. London and New York: Macmillan and Co., 1886.

First edition, inscribed by the author's mother to her mother-in-law on the half-title. Octavo . [6], 157, [1, blank] pp. Seven full-page black and white illustrations, including frontispiece.

Publisher's original light blue cloth with dark blue-stamped decorated borders, gilt lettering and vignette. Black endpapers. Author's identity neatly inked below byline on title page. The inked inscription reads: "Mrs. Hughes, With best wishes of / the new year 1887 / from the author's / mother!" (Emily Hughes).

Wood 141.
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WAIN, Louis. Music In Pussytown. Father Tuck's "Wonderland" Series No. 3154. London - Paris - New York: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., n.d. [1919-1920].

First edition. Oblong quarto. [14] pp. on heavy stock. Four full-page, numerous color text illustrations throughout. Color pictorial paper boards.

No copies recorded by OCLC/KVK. Only one copy has come to auction within the last thirty-six years.

Not in Dale. Unrecorded by Wood.

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Images from Madame Tabby's Establishment, which make their Internet debut here on Booktryst, courtesy of David Brass Rare Books, with our thanks. Ditto thanks re: Music in Pussytown.

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