Go! Champions of Light (1933)
Designs by Dugald Stewart Walker
 |
To the left is shown a rare copy of Go! Champions of Light by Frances Jenkins Olcott - illustrated by Dugald Walker - as published by Fleming H Revell (New York) in 1933.
This copy shows the original decoratively black and red-stamped blue cloth cover.
On the right is the Title Page. |
 |
Go! Champions of Light is a collection of tales by Frances Jenkins Olcott purporting to chronicle various adventures
undertaken by those spreading the word of God. His introduction to the tales provides a background to the work,
thus:
From the dreamy coral isles of the Pacific, romance beckons. India the golden calls the imagination.
Persia, Kurdistan, and Iraq suggest the colourful Orient. This is the background against which the
Champions of Light move, as they go about their noble and heroic errands.
Knights of the Cross they are, who capture without arms strange worlds for their Great Leader, "the
Light of the World," who has said to them, Go! And they have gone over seas and deserts, over
mountains and plains, through floods and through fire to the ends of the earth. Behind the romance,
the golden promises, the colourful East, they have found foul evils lurking, many of which they have
driven out. They have started movements for human liberty, have rescued women from slavery,
children from slaughter, and have called to crouching men and bidden them hold up their heads and
be free. They have saved lost souls. They have changed civilizations.
They are Greathearts, or St Georges armed to conquer the dragon, their banner the Cross, their shield
and lance the Book of God in their native tongues. Into more than nine hundred languages and
dialects that Book has been translated and is being distributed to the world. Statistics show it to be the
most popular book in the world.
Like pictures on the silver screen here are shown the glamorous panorama of Ancient Assyria leading
up to the the greatest of evangelical movements Eastward, even to Chine. Follows after that, the
adventures in India the ancient and golden of a Champion of Light who moved a civilization. Then
come two groups of stories telling of achievements and heroism in bright coral islands and atolls,
after Captain Cook had opened them up to the West.
Many dragons have fled before the lances of Light - human sacrifice, slaughter of babies, burning of
widows, strangling of women, devouring of human flesh, head hunting and grossness. Twenty years
after the Champions of Light first carried their bloodless warfare into the savage isles of the Pacific,
Charles Darwin, visiting them, wrote that the killing of children, idol-worship, human sacrifice and
other evils had nearly disappeared, and he added,
"In a voyager to forget these things, is base ingratitude. For should
he chance to be at the point of shipwreck on some unknown coast,
he will most devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may
have extended thus far."
No finer model for noble practice living can be held up to young people and children than the
Champion of Light. Even in these modern days, boys and girls are idealists, their instinct for chivalry,
romance and adventure leaping up like a flame in the presence of beauty and nobility.
A recent experiment in children's reading, made by the present writer, proved that modern
efficiency-training has not strangled the hunger for romance and chivalry. Very recently, for about
three years, I was associate director and organizer of a children's free city-library on entirely new
lines. It was a laboratory for a fresh experimentation, in which the children themselves took part.
The library was open to the neighbourhood. Children of many races and creeds used it freely as their
own. And their own it was, for the children served as the librarians under the direction of the Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts. The children helped to keep the shelves in order, recommended reading to
one another, and charged and gave out the books rapidly with an accuracy due to modern school
training. They were efficiency itself.
We, the directors, learned much by quietly watching and listening, which is a most practical
laboratory method in the study of children. Their natural tastes had not be smothered by modern
materialism. There was an eager call for romance and chivalry and for books of flaming true
adventure.
So for the modern boys and girls who crave the ideal that is also fact, Go! Champions of Light has
been written. And fact it is, not fiction at all; for the details are based on authoritative sources, the
folk customs are true ones, and the geographical environment is drawn to place, and the history
to time.
And the grown-up who will read aloud the stories, or a selection from them, laying the book aside
to be caught up by the young readers wanting to finish it, may be developing future Champions of
Light to carry afar the banner of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Walker's illustrations for Go! Champions of Light were among the last suites he prepared that were destined for publication.
As always, they are masterful - and an absolute joy to consider.
Our Greeting Cards and Reproduction Prints
%20(sample).jpg) |
For connoisseurs of Walker's work, we have prepared sets of 10 Greeting Cards displaying the major monotone images from Walker's designs for Go! Champions of Light and on the left, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear.
Code: DW
GCL MS(10) |
When presented on Greeting Cards, these images are prepared as tipped-on plates - in hommage to the hand-crafted
approach typical of prestige illustrated publications produced in the early decades of the 20th Century. Each card is
hand-finished and the images are presented on White card stock with an accompanying envelope. The rear of each
card carries information about Dugald Walker, this wonderful suite and the profiled illustration - we have left the interior
of the cards blank so that you may write your own personal message.
Should you wish to order a Reproduction Print of one or more of these images, we have provided some options below.
Each of these large format prints is also accompanied by information about Dugald Walker, this suite and the profiled
illustration.
To purchase, simply click on the appropriate "Add to Cart" button and you will be taken through to our Shopping Cart
secured through PayPal. Multiple purchases will be consolidated by that feature and shipping and handling costs to any
destination in the world are accommodated by our flat-rate fee of US$20 for every US$200 worth of purchases.
Of course, should you wish to discuss some customised options, we welcome your contact on any matter through
ThePeople@SpiritoftheAges.com.
In the meantime, enjoy perusing these wonderful images from Dugald Walker.
The major illustrations
|
|
.jpg) |
.jpg) |
.jpg) |
|
Starlight in the East Song of the Magi
|
Starlight in the East The Gorgeous East |
In India Golden and Ancient Song of the Little Hindu Widow |
In India Golden and Ancient The Shoemaker Boy |
|
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M1 (12x18) |
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M2 (12x18) |
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M3 (12x18) |
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M4 (12x18) |
.jpg) |
.jpg) |
.jpg) |
.jpg) |
|
Pearls of Price in Tropical Seas Song of the Children of the Isles |
Pearls of Price in Tropical Seas Coley Patteson |
Pearls of Price in Tropic Seas My Bauro Boys The Chief came, holding a bright branch of welcome (Frontispiece)
|
Isles of the Sea Song of the Children's Ship, the "Morning Star" |
|
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M5 (12x18) |
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M6 (12x18) |
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M7 (12x18) |
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M8 (12x18) |
.jpg) |
.jpg) |
||
|
Isles of the Sea Ship Ahoy with Captain Cook
|
Isaiah |
||
|
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M9 (12x18) |
Reproduction on 12x18'' sheet
Code: DW GCL M10 (12x18) |
The monotone End Papers
.jpg) |
.jpg) |
||
|
End Paper
(Presented as a diptych)
|
|||
|
A pair of reproductions on 12x18'' sheets
Code: DW GCL EP1|2 (12x18) |
|||
.jpg)