Childcraft's How and Why Library
Much like the door-to-door salespeople who sold them, encyclopedia sets have been largely killed off by the internet. Perhaps they'll make a comeback once we hit a critical mass of AI hallucinations.
The encyclopedia business was booming across the 20th century, enough so that the publishers of the World Book encyclopedia expanded into creating a kid-focused version in 1934, called "Childcraft – The How and Why Library."
It started as seven volumes, but stablized at 15 volumes by the 1950s. A special expansion-pack add-on volume was released annually starting in 1965, although this appears to have stopped after 2022.
You might think this is a post about the space illustrations that have appeared in these books. But there's an even more rich vein of fascinating artwork to be found here: Prehistoric animals.
Based on my Internet Archive spot-check, the series switched from black-and-white interior illustration to more detailed color illustrations between the 1960s and 1970s. All the artists are credited at the back of each volume.
If you have my 2023 art collection Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s (get it here!), you might recall I mention the strange connection between dinosaurs and sci-fi.
On one hand, they're opposites: Future vs past, alien vs terrestrial. Real life that vanished vs innovations that might yet come into existence.
On the other hand, they're the same: Fantastical visions of monsters from a distant era. Potentially real, but only in our imagination today.
My art collection was about science fiction, so most of the dinosaurs I showcased in that book were aliens, were seen through time-travel, or magically emerged from a drive-in theater movie screen.
However, my sixth sense for 70s sci-fi art appreciation kicks in just as hard for the historical depictions found in a few Childcraft volumes – Vol. 5 of the main series, "About Animals," as well as the 1976 annual, "Prehistoric Animals."
Alex Ebel, Vol. 5.
The illustrations above are just about all the prehistoric art that shows up "About Animals" (although there's also a cool crocodile pic), so they're probably the ones that loom large in the collective mind of the dino-loving Gen Xers that would have grown up with them.
Alex Ebel did all of the prehistoric art for "About Animals," although over a dozen artists contributed to the entire title.
Vol 5 has these great underwater illustrations of marine animals, also done by Alex Ebel.
Sadly, the 1976 annual "Prehistoric Animals" isn't available to borrow on the Internet Archive, and the scan I tracked down through other channels is weirdly compressed.
I do have good versions of all the best illustrations from it, though, thanks to the efforts of the AntiqueAnimals Tumblr.
I mentioned Rod Ruth's art for Ted McGowan's 1972 Album of Dinosaurs in my art book. Ruth makes a return here! His art is some of the best in this volume, along with Alex Ebel, Walter Linsenmaler, Richard Orr, Darrell Wiskur, Bernard Robinson and others.
Richard Orr has a few of the most atmospheric illustrations in the book, depicting prehistoric mammals by day (eohippus, coryphodon, and oxyaena) and by night (notharctus, with a bonus non-mammal alligator)
Childcraft is far from the only educational kid's book to feature sick prehistoric animals: These types of books were huge across the '60s and '70s.
Here's a Diatryma praying on a Hyracotherium, by Richard Orr for Beverly Halstead's 1976 A Closer Look at Prehistoric Mammals.
I've written about dinosaurs a few times on this blog. This won't be the last.
Cool Links
All About Ghosts (1977) - Vintage RPG
Let's keep the 70s-era kid's book edutainment trend going for this issue! Stu at Vintage RPG has a great little writeup on one of the Usborne books here.
Where Ghosts Gather… - The Haunted Generation
Stu's newsletter also linked to this 2019 interview with the author of the same 1977 Usborne book.
Who does Gen Z trust outside the algorithm? - Mozilla
As a media nerd, I thought this Ochuko Akpovbovbo post about the value of Gen Z group chats was really interesting.
The best media analysis you'll read this week.
Music Rec: Hope you weren't planning on listening to anything else for ten days, because that's how long it'll take you to get through this dad rock Spotify playlist - Deep Cuts, Forgotten Gems, and Classic Rock Gold. (That's ten days without sleeping, by the way... better get started!)
Next Time: Computer Plant Life