#leonora lang

[doctorgrantthinksthatsabadidea]

H.J. Ford illustration

[uwmspeccoll]

National Princess Day, November 18

@zsrspecial reminds us that today is National Princess Day, “a day dedicated to the idea that everyone, no matter who they are, can be a princess.” In the spirit of the day, we present some illustrations of princesses by English artist Henry J. Ford from The Book of Princes and Princesses by English author, editor, and translator Leonora Lang (often only credited, as in this publication, as “Mrs. Lang”), edited by her husband, the noted Scottish folklorist Andrew Lang, and published in London by Longmans, Green, and Co. in 1908. This book, from our Historical Curriculum Collection,  was written to inspire little princes and princesses everywhere, as Lang writes in her preface: “princes and princesses are not always fortunate and happy, though they are always brave, good, beautiful, and deserving. If they were always happy and fortunate, nobody would care to read about them; the stories would be very dull.”

Shown here from top to bottom:

1.) Gold-stamped blue cloth publisher’s binding; 2 & 3) Princess Jeanne de Navarre (1528-1572); 3 & 4.) Princess Marie Louise d'Orléans (1662-1689); 5 & 6.) Princess Elizabeth (1466-1503), daughter of English King Edward IV; 7.) Princess Marie Antoinette (1755-1793); 8 & 9.) Princess Isabella of Valois (1389-1409).