“Come, birdie, come,” a drawing by Louis Wain, took its title from a popular Victorian song, “Come, birdie, come and live with me.” The illustration comes from “Catland.” a brief, illustrated biography of Wain by Rodney Dales (Duckworth, $12.05). Wain, born in 1860, became famous in late Victorian England for his drawings of cats. He published 40 books and drew hundreds of postcards: but he frittered his earnings on strange experiments and inventions, and died in a psychiatric hospital in 1939. H. G. Wells wrote of him: “He invented the cat style, the cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves.” This book includes 15 of his finest drawings in colour.
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Bibliographic details
Press, 29 April 1978, Page 17
Word Count
123“Come, birdie, come,” a drawing by Louis Wain, took its title from a popular Victorian song, “Come, birdie, come and live with me.” The illustration comes from “Catland.” a brief, illustrated biography of Wain by Rodney Dales (Duckworth, $12.05). Wain, born in 1860, became famous in late Victorian England for his drawings of cats. He published 40 books and drew hundreds of postcards: but he frittered his earnings on strange experiments and inventions, and died in a psychiatric hospital in 1939. H. G. Wells wrote of him: “He invented the cat style, the cat society, a whole cat world. English cats that do not look like Louis Wain cats are ashamed of themselves.” This book includes 15 of his finest drawings in colour. Press, 29 April 1978, Page 17
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