International Children’s Book Day is celebrated each year to to help promote the role of children’s literature and the right of every child to become a reader.
Celebrated since 1967, this event generally falls around 2 April – the birth date of Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). This year it is the turn of the Irish branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to launch the festivities. Library staff member Louise Gallagher is a committee member of IBBY and – with the assistance of Clodagh Neligan, Niamh Harte and Helen McGinley – has mounted two exhibitions of Hans Christian Anderson titles as part of the celebrations.
Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, originally published in 1835, have been translated into over 125 different languages. Many of the world’s most celebrated illustrators have produced beautiful images inspired by his stories, including Edmund Dulac, Kay Nielsen, Harry Clarke and Arthur Rackham. Interestingly Dulac’s friendship with William Butler Yeats led to a variety of artistic projects, including the design at Yeats’s suggestion of a proposed coinage for the Irish Free State, and collaboration on his play ‘At the Hawk’s Well’. For this Dulac designed the scenery and costumes, composed the incidental music, and took part in the first performance in 1916.
The display case in the BLU contains a selection of titles mostly from the Pollard Collection including a copy of ‘The ugly duckling and other stories from Hans Andersen’s fairy tales’ (London, 1896) and an interesting primer in Gaelic type ‘Leabhrín na leanbh’ (Baile Átha Cliath, 1913). The case in the Orientation Space of the Ussher Library features a selection of material from our modern collections including ‘Snow queen’ (London, 1993) illustrated by Irish artist P.J. Lynch.