Kate Greenaway

Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) was a popular illustrator of children's books whose drawings were inspired by her own childhood memories. She was introduced to Edmund Evans, who recognised the potential of her illustrations, though he was not so keen on the verse she had written to accompany them. Kate Greenaway was adamant that the drawings and poetry must be published together and eventually a compromise was reached so that the verses appeared, but with a few alterations from a poet friend os Evans. One of Kate Greenaway's favourite poems as a child was the Pied Piper of Hamelin and she wrote to Robert Browning requesting permission to publish her drawings of this work. Permission was granted and the finished book, engraved by Evans, was published in the autumn of 1888. This collection is a set of five, for a sense of the layout, we have presented as one at the bottom of the page.