A History of Book Illustration

Bill Katz didn't know what he wanted to become. His Italian-American mother sent him to St. Joe's Cathedral School in Hartford. The
Sisters of Mercy were elated to have a student with a Jewish surname. At first they saw little Billy Katz as the biblical prophecy of Jewish conversion. That is, until he began to cause trouble and question authority. Eventually, Billy was expelled for refusing to get a haircut. At Hartford High School, Bill began writing satires for the school newspaper. Nixon provided Bill with material not unlike Trump has today. After
incomplete studies at college, he purchased a one way ticket to Europe and backpacked around the continent for a few years, finally making
Florence, Italy his temporary home. He returned with a new found interest in art and eventually became a dealer of African American
art. Cat rescue is a constant interest. He is a singer/songwriter and he writes what has been described as "Songs of Conscience." If you search
in YouTube, "Bill Katz, Hartford, Connecticut," you can listen to a few including "Blue Daze" and "Corona Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu."

...will be useful for student librarians and in history of the book courses. PBSA I highly recommend this excellent reader for every art library, and I recommend it to art librarians-there are wonderful revelations in it for us. Susan G. Swartzburg, Rutgers University This doesn't mimic competitors: it covers angles not surveyed elsewhere and holds special chapters on children's illustration and illuminated manuscripts as well as unique, varied discussions by a variety of contributors. The Bookwatch ...a wonderful smorgasbord of articles that reflects the pleasant eccentricity of the editor, Bill Katz...I highly recommend this book not only to those interested in book illustration but to people who have a general interest in the history and development of the book. Epilogue ...extensive documentation accompanying the discussions adds detail, a sense of the scope of scholarship in an area, and a multitude of "leads" for further exploration...a very interesting, highly informative, and easy read. The level of the scholarship is first-rate and the papers are well-written. A reader can spend a considerable amount of time studying the large number of illustrations, especially in the context of the "reading instructions" given in the accompanying texts. I believe that, for anyone with an interest in illustration and books, this book promises both profit and delight. Analytical and Enumerative Bibliography