» Horace John Knowles Biography | Life, Art & Illustrated Books

Horace John Knowles – English author and illustrator, 1884-1954.

Bom on 22 July 1884 in Poplar, East London, Horace was the fifth child of Ebenezer and Emma Knowles, and the brother of Reginald Knowles. He was educated at George Green’s School in Poplar, and designed the cover for the first issue of the school magazine, November 1911.

With his brothers Reginald and Charles, he attended evening classes at the Craft School in Aidgate, East London, while still at school. Although he wanted to be an artist like his brothers, he was apprenticed as an engineering draughtsman, but managed in the evenings to produce illustrations with his brother Reginald for Legends from Fairyland (1907) and Norse Fairy Tales (1910). He became a full-time free-lance artist some time later, his first commissions being to produce illuminated addresses on vellum, before he illustrated several church magazines and many books.

He also took part in amateur dramatics, acting as well as designing costumes and producing plays. The last major task of his career, which he worked on for five years, was to produce some five hundred illustrations and maps for the Bible published to commemorate the third jubilee of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1954. For most of his book illustrations, Knowles worked in black and white, and produced very decorative, delicate drawings, often of scenes of the countryside.

Horace Knowles died on 21 August 1954 at Norbury, Derbyshire, England..

Source: The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators, Alan Horne.

Books Illustrated by Horace J. Knowles

H. Lee: Legends from Fairyland (with Reginald Knowles, Freemantle, 1907)
G.W. Dasent, trans.: None Fairy Tales (with Reginald Knowles, Freemantle, 1910)
C.D. Cole: Cow slips and Kingcups (Methuen, 1920)
A. Latham: Among the Innocent (Methuen, 1920); Berni, the Story of a German (Harrap. nd)
M. Pedley: The Land of Goodness Knows Where (Newnes. 1923)
S. Lagerlof: Christ Legends (Elkin Mathews, 1930)
AM. Buckton: Eager Heart (Elkin Mathews, 1931)
B. Buxton: My First Book of Prayers (Atheneum Press, 1932)
A Book of Thoughts on Courage (Elkin Mathews, 1932)
A Book of Thoughts on Hope (Elkin Mathews, 1932)
A Book of Thoughts on Friendship (Elkin Mathews, 1932)
J. Stirling: For a Child Like Me (Mathews, 1934); The Sermon on the Mount (Nicholson, 1936)
C. D. Cole: Cowslips and Kingcups (Methuen, n.d.)
E. Blyton: The Land of Far Beyond (Methuen, 1942)
H. McKay: This Duck and That Duck (Francis James, 1944)
A.L.Hetherington: Three Asiatic Legends (Francis James, 1945
L. Rivett: Through the Hole in the Wall (Francis James, 1946)
A.G. Ghant: Legend of Glastonbury (Epworth Press, 1948)
E. Blyton: The Enid Blyton Book of Fairies (Newnes, 1954)
The Jubilee Bible (British & Foreign Bible Society, 1954)