Harold Robert Millar (1869 – 1940) was a prolific Scottish graphic artist and illustrator of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.* He is best known for his illustrations of children’s books and fantasy literature “His work…has a lively, imaginative charm and a distinctive sense of design.”**Born in Dumfries, in 1869, Millar first studied and worked in civil engineering before deciding upon an artistic career. He studied at the Wolverhampton Art School and the Birmingham School of Art, before establishing his career as a magazine illustrator with Punch, Good Words, and other periodicals of the day. Millar “flourished” between 1890 and 1935. (Hearn 383)
Worked primarily as a magazine illustrator for the Strand, where many of Nesbit’s stories were first published. Millar illustrated fables for the Strand Magazine, and anthologies of tales, The Golden Fairy Book, The Silver Fairy Book, The Diamond Fairy Book, and The Ruby Fairy Book. He illustrated books by a wide range of British authors of his time, including Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Rudyard Kipling. He had an extensive working relationship with Nesbit, and has been called “the most sympathetic and perhaps the most talented of her illustrators.“*** Even though Nesbit and Millar didn’t really like each other, Millar halped to shape the meaning of Nesbit’s books (Sloth in the Magic city is a good example).
Apart from fantasy and children’s books, Millar drew pictures for works like Kate Lawson’s Highways and Homes of Japan (1910) and Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore’s African Jungle Life (1928). Millar was a noted collector of Eastern art and exotic and ancient weapons, and employed his interest and knowledge in these areas in his artwork.
Here’s a list of some of the victorian works Millar was responsible for illustrating:
- Millar, H. R., illust.: Stories From Ancient Rome (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1911), by Alfred John Church (illustrated HTML at Baldwin Project)
- George Eliot‘s Scenes of Clerical Life
- H. Rider Haggard‘s The Brethren
- Newman Harding’s The Little Black Monkey and The Little Grey Pedlar
- Nathaniel Hawthorne‘s Tanglewood Tales
- Howard Angus Kennedy’s The New World Fairy Book and The Canadian Fairy Book
- Kipling’s Kim and Puck of Pook’s Hill (Millar, H. R., illust.: Puck of Pook’s Hill (London: Macmillan and Co., 1911), by Rudyard Kipling (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML))
- Captain Marryat‘s Frank Mildmay, The Phantom Ship, and Snarley-Yow
- Mrs. Molesworth‘s Peterkin (Millar, H. R., illust.: Peterkin (London and New York: Macmillan, 1902), by Mrs. Molesworth (Gutenberg text, illustrated HTML, and page images))
- James Morier‘s The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan
- Edith Nesbit’s The Book of Dragons, The Enchanted Castle, Five Children and It, The House of Arden, The Magic City, The Story of the Amulet, and other works
- Thomas Love Peacock‘s Headlong Hall and Nightmare Abbey
- The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (London and New York: Macmillan and Co., 1895), by James Justinian Morier, contrib. by George Nathaniel Curzon (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
- Millar, H. R., illust.: The Book of Dragons (8-story collection reprinted by Dover), by E. Nesbit, also illust. by Herbert Granville Fell (Gutenberg text, illustrated HTML, and page images)
- Millar, H. R., illust.: Harding’s Luck (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909), by E. Nesbit (illustrated HTML at Celebration of Women Writers)
- Millar, H. R., illust.: Harding’s Luck (New York: F. A. Stokes, 1910), by E. Nesbit (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
- Millar, H. R., illust.: The House of Arden (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1923), by E. Nesbit (illustrated HTML at Celebration of Women Writers)
- Millar, H. R., illust.: The Magic City (London: Macmillan, 1910), by E. Nesbit (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
- Millar, H. R., illust.: The Magic World (London: Macmillan and Co., 1924), by E. Nesbit, also illust. by Gerald Spencer Pryse (Gutenberg text, illustrated HTML, and page images)
- Millar, H. R., illust.: Oswald Bastable, and Others, by E. Nesbit, also illust. by C. E. Brock
- Quiller-Couch’s Fairy Tales Far and Near
- Tetta Ward’s My Fairy Tale Book
Works Cited
*Stephen Pickett, Victorian Fantasy, second edition, Waco, TX, Baylor University Press, 2005; p. xi-ff
**John Clute and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, New York, Macmillan, 1999; p. 646.
***Marcus Crouch, Treasure Seekers and Borrowers: Children’s Books in Britain, 1900–1960, London, The Library Association, 1962; p. 15.
Image: Frontis from the 1st edition of Enid Blyton’s Yellow Fairy Book, illustrated by H.R. Millar
