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William Gordon Mein (4 April 1868 - 1939) was a British book illustrator who flourished in the late 19th to early 20th century. He lived in London from around the turn of the century.

Life and works

Mein was born in Kelso, Roxburgh, Scotland. His painting On the Tweed Near Berwick was exhibited by the Royal Scottish Academy in 1898 but he is known primarily for his illustrations. His drawings were published in The Dome periodical, with contemporary artists Laurence Housman and Frank Mura. He was engaged by publisher Andrew Melrose to illustrate W. E. Cule's fairy tale Mabel's Prince Wonderful (1899) - his first major book illustration commission. Around the same time, the Decadent publisher Leonard Smithers commissioned him to illustrate Nigel Tourneur's Hidden Witchery.

Mein married Frances Elizabeth Sinclair in December 1902, in Berwick, and they settled in Fulham, London. In the 1911 Census he was living at 18 Rostrevor Mans Rd. Fulham and his occupation is listed as artist and Art Chronicle editor. He is known in particular for illustrating works of fairy tale and fantasy and also specialised in boys' stories. He provided woodcut illustrations for The Roadmender by Michael Fairless (1903), which went through many editions.

He died in London in 1939.

Selected works illustrated by Mein

• Michael Fairless (Margaret Barber) The Roadmender, Duckworth & Company, London, 1903.
• D.L A. Jephson, A Fragment, R. J. Everett & Sons, London, 1903.
• Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull (pseud. Guy Thorne) From the Book Beautiful: Being Some Old Lights Relit, Greening & Co., London,1903.
• The Adventures of Ulysses the Wanderer: An Old Story Retold, Greening & Co., London, 1902.
• Nigel Tourneur, Hidden Witchery, Leonard Smithers, London, 1898.
• Percy Izzard, Homeland:A Year of Country Days, .John Richmond, London, 1918.
• Irene Osgood (trans.) The Indelicate Duellist: Adapted from the French (of Charles Leroy), John Richmond, London, 1914.
• Where Pharaoh Dreams: Being the Impressions of a Woman-of-Moods in Egypt", John Richmond, London, 1914.
• W. E. Cule. Mabel's Prince Wonderful: or, A Trip to Storyland, E. W. & R. Chambers, Edinburgh & London,1899.
• Christies Deas. Pan-o’-the-Pipes: Eight Fairy Tales, A. Walker & Son, Galashiels, 1915.
• Clement Scott. Some Notable Hamlets of the Present Time, Greening & Co., London, 1900.
• H.L.Havell, Stories from Thucydides, Harrap, 1909
• James Eaton. The Worship of It, and Other Fancies, Grant Richards, London. 1915.
• James Baldwin,The Story of Roland and the Peers of Charlemagne, George G. Harrap & Co., 1917
• Regina Miriam Bloch, The Book of Strange Loves, London, 1918

See also

• Children's literature

References

1. The Dictionary of Scottish Painters. 1600 to the present. Paul Harris and Julian Halsby. Canongate Publishing. 1990.
2. Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Peter J. M. McEwan. Antique Collectors Club. 1994.
3. The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, Issue 72, The Royal Scottish Academy, 1898
4. The Dome. Unicorn Press. 1899.
5. Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature, Volume 71, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1899
6. New York Times, Sunday, August 15, 2010, The Publishers: Plans of Some of Them - Forthcoming New Books

External links

• Works by Will G. Mein at Project Gutenberg
• Nigel Tourneur, Hidden Witchery

• 1868 births
• 1939 deaths
• People from Kelso, Scottish Borders
• British illustrators
• British children's book illustrators
• Scottish male painters