Barbara Leonie Picard's Stories of King Arthur and His Knights

I've had more than a few visitors to this site stop by via Google Images wanting to see this picture of the covers of Barbara Leonie Picard's Odyssey and Iliad books (all illustrated by her frequent collaborator Joan Kiddell-Monroe) so for all the Picard fans out there, I thought I'd post a few images from another one of her wonderful long-lost books, Stories of King Arthur and His Knights (1955), published by Oxford University Press in the UK and Walck in the United States.

Text from the front flap is as follows:


Stories of
KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS
By Barbara Leonie Picard
Illustrated by Roy Morgan


"...here with simplicity and directness and the joy of a good story for its own sake are told, from Malory and other sources, the 'lovely tales': the sword in the stone, Merlin and Morgan Le Fay, the loves of Guenever, the two Elaines, the two Isolts, Linette and Enid and many others. It is a cause for rejoicing that there are also a fine retelling of Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, that perfect short story, and an unusually moving account of the quest for the Holy Grail. The spring green cover is just right to encase these enthralling, ever-youthful adventures and Roy Morgan's woodcut decorations have strength and a truly medieval flavor.


This finely made book should be in homes as well as in all libraries. The short chapters are well-adapted for reading aloud. The prose is modern and straightforward, extremely easy to follow yet always with a turn of phrase to give the feeling of the days of old..."


—New York Herald Tribune


HENRY Z. WALCK, Inc.