The Long Bright Land (1929)

Illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop

To the left, we show a copy of The Long Bright Land, as illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop - published by Little, Brown, and Company (Boston) in 1929.   This example retains the original decoratively gilt-stamped black cloth cover.               On the right, we show the decorated Title Page to The Long Bright Land.

The Long Bright Land (1929) is a work from the New Zealand teacher, author and educationalist, Edith Howes. It

is one of many books she wrote for children and seeks to contribute to the preservation of Maori history. Howes'

Foreword - shown below - provides some background to the work and its raison d'être.

Centuries before Columbus braved the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America those

intrepid navigators, the Maoris, in their tree-hollowed, compass-less canoes, voyaged

and re-voyaged the Pacific, compared with which the Atlantic is but a narrow sea.

From their tropic shores (perhaps India or a Pacific continent since sunken) they

migrated to tropic islands. Still farther they voyaged, sailing so far south that they

came in sight of ice fields, "a land white like fat"; on their way back they discovered

Ao-tea-roa, "the Long Bright land", which the later Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman,

called New Zealand.

In successive migrations, about the fourteenth century, several tribes sought these

lovely islands of the New Zealand group and remained. They brought with them and

established here their stone-age culture, their priests, their traditions from the older

lands.

When the first white pioneers and missionaries came a hundred years ago, they found

a savage but magnificent race, still in the stone age but possessed of Halls of Learning

in which their youths were taught. Here their age-long genealogies were handed

down, to be stored in trained and unerring memories. Here were kept alive those

far-off recollections of the great voyages and of that loved and long-lost motherland

which had given their viking ancestors birth - that Hawa-iki to which there was now

no return in life, since the route had somehow been forgotten, but to which, after

death, sighing spirits took their flight from the northernmost point of the Long Bright

Land.

Here, too, were preserved the mysteries and the annals of their religion: magic,

speculations into Nothingness and Darkness and Beginning and the making of the

world, tales and attributes of their gods and half-gods - a complicated and highly

poetic mythology, enriched with poems and prayers, songs and proverbs, folk lore

and fairies.

The early missionaries, and more notably Sire George Grey, appointed Governor-in-

Chief of New Zealand in 1845, collected and translated a great mass of these myths,

legends, folk tales, poems, prayers, and proverbs. From their old books and from

more recent work in the field of Polynesian mythology, I have culled these tales.

The young Maoris now are brought up in the civilization of the whites; their

stone-age culture is superseded by that of electricity and stainless knives; their legends

are forgotten. But that these tales of a race's childhood, this store of romance and

poetry and laughter should be lost to the childhood of to-day - would it not be

a pity?

The colour and monotone suite of illustrations prepared by Lathrop to accompany Howes' work pay a most

wonderful homage to the Polynesian tales and captures - in dramatic fashion - the themes of the tales.

Our Greeting Cards and Reproduction Prints

We have prepared sets of 17 Greeting Cards displaying each of Lathrop's colour and monotone illustrations for The Long Bright Land and on the right, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear. Ordering one of those sets is as easy as selecting the "Add to Cart" feature below and following the prompts provided with 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.   Code: DL TLBL MS(17) Price: US$65.00

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.

Hand-finishing is used to replicate the visual appearance of a tipped-on plate and the images are presented on

Ivory card stock (in the case of colour illustrations) or White card stock (in the case of monotone illustrations)

with an accompanying envelope. We have left 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. 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 examples of the art of Dorothy Lathop. 

The colour illustration

Frontispiece Inch by inch Maui pulled in the line, chanting and pulling, pulling and chanting.
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL C1 12x18 Price: US$60.00

The major monotone illustrations

Cover	Title Page	Contents Page	Illustrations Page
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M1 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M2 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M3 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M4 12x18 Price: US$60.00
Matariki's Star Down into the lake he shot, he and his star together.	Maui's Boyhood In a cluster of seaweeds and jellyfishes lay Maui, the little baby.	Maui and the Dragon Out the dragon came, swimming fast toward her.	The Underworld "She passed," they told him, "weeping as she went."
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M5 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M6 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M7 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M8 12x18 Price: US$60.00
Maid of the Mist She came forth from the house, her long hair about her like a cloak.	Rata's Search Rata and his warriors bade their people farewell, seated themselves in the canoe, and rowed away.	The Goblin of the Mountains The Sun's rays struck full on the goblin's eyes, dazzling him.	The Goblin of the Mountains The warrior stood on the fish's back and was carried across the sea to the land of Pou.
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M9 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M10 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M11 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M12 12x18 Price: US$60.00
The Fireless Island Down he came swiftly, shaking the earth with his weight, and Manini had to fly like the wind before him.	Hinemoa The dragon of the deep pushed a cluster of rocks above the water, that Hinemoa might rest on them.	The Real Princess So each night Ruru sat with the real Roronga in her house.	The Youngest Brother Now he began to be happy. He lived by himself in the forest.
Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M13 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M14 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M15 12x18 Price: US$60.00	Reproduction on 12x18" sheet Code: DL TLBL M16 12x18 Price: US$60.00