Besides Wuthering Heights, this has to be the absolute most depressing book I've ever read. As soon as I realized where this story was going, my heart began to beat faster with dread and fear. Warning: it ends badly. I hope someone else can find some redemption in this pitiful tale. As for me and my house, we shall purge the book. ( )

The Fir Tree, illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert.

Originally published in 1844, as part of Hans Christian Andersen's New Fairy Tales, The Fir Tree - like The Little Mermaid and The Snow Queen - is one of the author's original creations. The story of a young tree who is unable to appreciate present blessings, because he is always looking forward to future glories, it displays that unmistakable melancholy found in so many of Andersen's creations, and concludes with the little fir's sad demise.

Nancy Ekholm Burkert's gorgeous full-color brush and ink paintings, and black and white drawings in pencil, add to the emotional weight of this retelling, emphasizing the beauty of the forest, the magic of Christmas night, and the loneliness of the tree's final days. Visually appealing, this is one I would recommend to all Hans Christian Andersen readers... ( )

12 Books of Christmas

#7 Elegance

Sometimes a little book is published that’s just about perfect. That’s all you need to say about it. It’s just about perfect.

Such a book is The Fir Tree, one of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories, illustrated by the Nancy Ekholm Burkert (Harper, 1970), one of the great book illustrators of the twentieth century, not nearly as widely recognized and honored as she should be. She is best known for her illustrations to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1972). Our children and grandchildren’s favorite has been The Scroobius Pip (1968), Edward Lear’s wonderful nonsense verse completed by Ogden Nash.

I’m not sure who wrote the entry on Burkert in Wikipedia, but one paragraph is a splendid account of her work as an illustrator:

"Her early work demonstrated a command of shading and texture through pencil and charcoal, in addition to her usual media of pen and ink combined with colored pencil and watercolor. Beginning with The Nightingale and concluding with Snow White, her mastery of light, shadow and depth combined Renaissance chiaroscuro with an Oriental awareness of space in settings that were realistic in detail, yet also fanciful and timeless in content. Her later work continued this emphasis on intense, intimate detail, revealing a passion for the complexity and variety of life." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Ekholm_Burkert]

The five full-page, full-color illustrations to Fir Tree as well as the cover illustration were done in brush and ink, exquisitely delicate in line, light, and color. The numerous little black and white drawings are in pencil.

She has done only about a half dozen books, including an oversize edition of the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Just exactly why she chose this Andersen story, I can’t imagine. This one is certainly not a cheerful children’s story, nor a very popular one among young readers (or their parents). If not downright despondent, it is poignant – the story of a little fir tree that always has glorious dreams of its future, so that it cannot enjoy the pleasure of the moment. Its fate, of course, is foreordained as soon as it is chosen for a family’s Christmas tree.

One of Burkert’s illustrations, a double-page spread, is one of the most effective picture pages in all children’s literature, certainly in winter holiday books. It’s a close-up of the middle of the decorated tree with a beautiful young woman holding a taper, prepared to light the candles on the tree. The tree’s twigs are thick, green, and graceful. The candles, as yet unlit, are red, white, and blue. The tree is hung with oranges and English walnuts. The traditional ornaments that we see are incredibly realistic and charming: George Washington holding an early American flag with the Tree of Liberty, Queen Elizabeth I gowned to the hilt, Charles Dickens reading A Christmas Carol, Handel with music to The Messiah under his arm, a blue mermaid, Napoleon Bonaparte, Father Christmas, a colorful clown, and an angel blowing a trumpet. Every little detail is just right: from the crinkles on the walnut shells to Elizabeth’s stiff collar and red wig to the lace on the the sleeves of the young candlelighter’s blouse. (This design became available as a Christmas card a year of so after publication, and we used it that year.)

Burkert’s co-designer for the book was Gloria Bressler, and they both deserve credit for the elegance and appropriateness of the design: the paper, the type font, the page layouts, the green cloth cover, the bright red end papers, the dust jacket, the size and shape of the book (about 5x8) to be held in one’s hand.

[A fine copy of a first edition of this book w/ dj is worthy of a collector’s attention. Prices on ABE range up to $75 and $100, but incredibly there are still copies, listed as fine or near fine for under $20. If you don’t have this and collect such books, you should jump at these while they’re still available. It is also available in paperback.] ( )

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