Customer Reviews

Oars, Sails and Steam: A Picture Book of Ships

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In the last twenty years, a revolution has taken place in book publishing. Both the quanity and quality of images in books have exploded in the past few years. A great example of this is the book "Ship: the Epic Story of Maritime Adventure" by Brian Lavery and published by DK. There are literally hundreds of amazing drawings, paintings and wooden models of every ship type that you can imagine.

In contrast, when Edwin Tunis published this book in 1952, beautiful, high quality color illustrations were reserved for the most expensive books. Black and white line illustrations were the preferred and most economic method of illustrating picture books. These were the types of books, that I grew up reading and loving in the 1960's and 1970's.

To be a successful line illustrator required great imagination. The illustrations not only had to be top notch, the image had to be composed within an interesting context. Edwin Tunis was one of the great masters of this style of illustration. This book not only has great images of boats and ships but these vessels are doing interesting things. As an example, his image of a whale boat shows a dead whale riding next to the ship while the crew is harvesting the whale's oil. These were the types of details that enrichen illustations and help capture a reader's imagination.

Edwin Tunis was one of the great illustators of his day. Be sure to look at his other books. If you like Edwin Tunis, be sure to check out the works of Eric Sloane, another master illustrator.

I've always believed that even an adult researcher should keep the juvenile section in mind, and this book is a perfect example of why. Clear, easily comprehended text covers all the highpoints of the history of ships, from the floating log to modern passenger liners; illustrations are beautiful and detailed, and there's an extensive glossary of nautical terms at the back. With this volume to help you, you will be well "launched" (no pun intended) in your quest to learn about historic watercraft.