Information accumulates in strange and wondrous ways. While searching for an image which had once illustrated the children’s stories of Robert Louis Stevenson (for his poem “The Land of Counterpane”) I stumbled upon the name of his illustrator: Myrtle Sheldon [1886-1941], about whom I had been ignorant. That’s the nice thing about ignorance: it can be fixed. Indeed, it invites “repair”.
Ms Sheldon’s talent will appear on the masthead for at least a few days. But I’m certain others of her drawings will come to light and become embedded in the story.
I too have stumbled upon this woman and wanted to know more. All I found was the dates of her birth and death, provided by you. Please tell us more!
Hi Audrey, here is what little I know. Tonight, I chanced upon a document I downloaded a few years ago from Project Gutenberg—”A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Illustrated by Myrtle Sheldon”. It’s an e-text identified as “Release Date: November 6, 2006 [eBook #19722]”. I started looking on the web and here I am.
I had the book as a child in RAF Nicosia, Cyprus in 1957-8 and well recall the excellent and evocative illustrations. I’d always imagined them the epitome of Britishness but I stand corrected! A few of the verses have stuck with me word for word while others seem unfamiliar to me, so I probably returned often to the same few favourites. See https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/108902526/myrtle-sheldon to see where the lady is interred in NY. The Find A Grave contributor is “yrag reltub” (Gary Butler) of https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/47463227 … he mentioned in 2013 his membership of the Sheldon Family Assn. Happy researches!