Inspiring Older Readers

posted on 17 May 2017

The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan by James Morier illustrated by Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge

It just goes to show that you never know what you’re going to find when you make a casual visit to a flea market in Raleigh, North Carolina. This 1937 US edition of Hajji Baba cost me the princely sum of $5 and is a truly sumptuous edition – far more sumptuous than the rather tedious stories told by Morier deserve.

a_bald71.jpga_bald21.jpg

James Justinian Morier was a British diplomat in the first part of the 19th century who spent much of his time operating in the Ottoman Empire. He wrote a short series of ‘Persian’ tales under the title of the Hajji Baba series and they were a distinctly second rate knock off of the far superior Arabian Nights. Morier was, of course, cashing in on the British fascination with Orientalism and had an audience eager for these stories of magical and treacherous lands lightly salted with semi-clad harem women and all powerful, turban potentates. Morier certainly contributed his fair share of stereotyping of the Islamic world to the mix and gained a short-lived popularity – as well as some official complaints from the government of (then) Persia who objected to their culture being reduced to such a cartoon vision. Maybe there would have been less of a problem if the stories had any real literary merit but, by and large, they don’t.

a_bald81.jpg

I have to say I knew nothing about Morier when I bought the book and I have only uncovered this background after grazing over the stories and doing a bit of research. It wasn’t the stories that really intrigued me though so much as the fantastic care and attention the publisher of this edition, Ransom House, has lavished on it. It’s finely bound – I love sewn books – has a perfect dust jacket that is wholly replicated on the cloth boards beneath the paper and it is lavishly illustrated with full colour plates and some black and white line drawings by Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge ( what a name!).

a_bald51.jpg

Baldridge (1889 – 1977) was a genuinely fascinating character who came from a poor family and worked his way through Chicago University by earning money doing drawings of campus life. When he left university he was looking for work as an illustrator but had to find work where he could, eventually winding up fighting in the First World War at home on the Mexican border and abroad in Belgium and France where, as part of the American Expeditionary Force, he was involved in producing and illustrating the Stars and Stripes newspaper. It was this that brought his drawings to greater public attention and with his growing reputation he also started to develop another mission – to expose how dreadful war is. Baldridge developed strong left-wing views based on Internationalism and anti-war campaigns which drew the support of people like John Dos Passos.

a_bald41.jpg

He and his partner, Caroline Singer, began to travel the world and he found his painting and drawing style becoming more and more influenced by his experiences in the Far East and in Africa. It was these experiences that led to the commission for this reprint of Hajji Baba and soon after a version of Arthur Waley’s Chinese tales in translation. Baldridge remained prolific in book and magazine illustration until the end of his life and stayed an advocate for peace as a true American value throughout.

a_bald61.jpg

The illustrations in this book have an extraordinary colour quality and a depth of depiction that makes them almost three dimensional. The design of the end papers is beautiful and there’s a wonderful full colour map spread over two open pages at the beginning.

Copies of this edition can be found in the UK on internet sites for prices between £25-30 and I consider that to be a pretty good price for such a lovely production.

 

Terry Potter

May 2017

a_bald11.jpg