Jiri Trnka: Stories and Poems for all Seasons

These are scans from my personal copy of the book, Stories and Poems for all Seasons, illustrated by famous Czech artist Jiri Trnka Heirs, published by Hamlyn in 1988. This was a gift I received from my aunt, on my sixth birthday. I don't think my aunt was aware of what she was giving me. For her it must have been a different looking story book for a child. I never read the whole thing, or more than a few poems maybe, because I was afraid that I might never look at it again if I finished it. So till date I just look at the pictures without trying to read the text, lest it take the magic and mystery out of the images.

Strangely I grew up to be interested in images and ended up studying film and suddenly as I was looking up works by Jan Svankmajer, I discovered Jiri Trnka again. He was also a puppeteer but I have not been able to watch any of his animation films. And it was then I remember my book again, and realised that a copy of it had been lying at home in some cupboard safely for me to rediscover!

Jiri Trnka from the Prague School of Arts and Crafts and created a puppet theater group in 1936. This group was dissolved after the dawn of World War 2, and he instead designed stage sets and illustrated books for children throughout the war.After the end of the war, Trnka established an animation unit at the Prague film studio.

I hope for all those people who want to look at Jiri Trnka's work and cannot find it on the internet, this serves as a good resource. Have fun, and drop in a few lines if you like it!