East of the Sun and West of the Moon

I was looking for a new fairy tale for my daughter, and by pure chance, I discovered a brilliant edition of Norvegian stories East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Taschen.

(c) Wikicommons

I was impressed by beautiful illustrations, and it turned out there's a story behind the book. The original edition of Norvegian folklore stories was published in 1914. The illustrator was Kay Nielsen, a young Danish artist who lived in England.

(c) Wikicommons

(c) Wikicommons

The book included 15 fairy tales about witches, trolls, bears, princesses, and princes. There was a trend for deluxe editions initiated by publishers who commissioned famous artists to illustrate new and classical texts.

(c) Wikicommons

(c) Wikicommons

Nielsen worked on illustrations for other children's story collections by Andersen, Perrault, and Grimm, but the war interrupted his career.

(c) Pinterest

He moved to Hollywood and worked for the Walt Disney Company for 4 years, from 1937 to 1941, before being let go. Nielsen briefly returned to Denmark, but his works were no longer in demand there. He spent the final sixteen years of his life in poverty.