Edmund Dulac – Illustrations for The Bells and other Poems 1912

Edmund Dulac (born Edmond Dulac; 1882 –  1953) was a French-born, British naturalised magazine illustrator, book illustrator and stamp designer.

Dulac was a prolific illustrator and designer. His works include Stories from The Arabian Nights (1907) with 50 colour plates; an edition of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1908) with 40 colour illustrations; The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1909) with 20 colour plates; The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales (1910); Stories from Hans Christian Andersen (1911); The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1912) with 28 colour plates and many monotone illustrations, Princess Badoura (1913) and many others.

“The Bells” is a heavily onomatopoeic poem by Edgar Allan Poe which was not published until after his death in 1849. It is perhaps best known for the diacopic use of the word “bells.” The poem has four parts to it; each part becomes darker and darker as the poem progresses from “the jingling and the tinkling” of the bells in part 1 to the “moaning and the groaning” of the bells in part 4.

Edgar Alan Poe is believed to have written “The Bells” in May 1848 and submitted it three times to Sartain’s Union Magazine, a magazine co-owned by his friend John Sartain, until it was finally accepted. He was paid fifteen dollars for his work, though it was not published until after his death in the November 1849 issue. It was also published in Horace Greeley’s the New York Daily Tribune newspaper on the front page of its October 17, 1849 issue as “Poe’s Last Poem”.

Presenting the illustrations from the First Edition of The Bells and Other Poems by Edgar Alan Poe, illustrated by Edmund Dulac. Published by Hodder Stoughton, London 1912.

Other books illustrated by Edmund Dulac available in our gallery: Stories from the Arabian Nights,  Lyrics, Pathetic and Humourous from A to Z, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, The Sleeping Beauty, Stories from Hans Andersen, Princess Badoura, Sindbad the Sailor and other stories, The Kingdom of the Pearl.

• Complete list of books illustrated by Edmund Dulac.
• Our Edmund Dulac Art Gallery

Art Gallery: Edmund Dulac – The Bells and other Poems 1912