The book

Alphabet en Images

The book is 31.5 cm high and 24.5 cm wide. It has a coloured cover and contains 32 coloured, illustrated and unnumbered pages and is about 7 mm thick.

The cover is made of 1 mm thick cardboard laminated in colour and held together by a spine made of bookbinding linen in signal red, narrowly overlapping the title and the spine. On a background in a refined shimmering green-yellow linen look, a white area of width 19.5 cm x height 20 cm is left open, in which, framed by a bold line in 2.1 pt or 2 Didot dots, the first colour illustration is printed.

Above the white area, the title of the book is printed in black in 52 pt/36 pt, heavily blocked capitals in a grotesque font: ALPHABET EN IMAGES.

The cover is followed directly by the title without endpapers. Here the title is printed in justified capitals:

Author: Marie-Madeleine Franc-Nohain
Title: Alphabet en Images
Content: 31 Gravures en couleurs
Publisher: Librairie Larousse - Paris (VI°) 13 à 21, rue Montparnasse, et boulevard Raspail, 114

The title page shows another 3-colour illustration between the title and the contents in the size W 11 cm x H 8 cm. The title page is followed on its reverse by an introduction to the book by the editors. The text is set in justified type in a 16pt grotesque, the first paragraph has an initial that goes over 2 lines. The text reads:

And in the englisch translation

Below the text, an ornament of branches and flowers finishes the page.

30 illustrated pages

The alphabet from A to Z

There follow 30 pages on a rough, open-looking paper with an estimated cardboard weight of 160 gr/m2 with illustrations and short verses for each letter of the alphabet from A-Z, there are 2 pages each for the letters M, P, S, V. Perhaps the publisher liked the illustrations so much? However, it is always necessary to find page numbers that are divisible by 4. 

Each page is similar but very varied in design and printed in three colours. Each double-page spread has either blue or green as its defining main colour. The background illustrations are printed in it, as are the double lines surrounding the illustration and the mnemonic verse. The main colour is the third printing colour of the illustrations, along with red and black.

The three-colour illustrations measure W 14 cm x H 17 cm and are framed by a bold line in black at about 2.1 pt or 2 didot points. Below the illustrations is the verse printed in a variety of fonts.

Verse and illustration are further surrounded by a coloured frame with a double line, which measures W 15 cm x H 22,2 cm. Inside a thin line in 1 pt thickness, outside a bold line in 2.1 pt or 1 Didot point. The frame is surrounded by further illustrations, which are only line drawings and only printed in one colour in the main colour. There are a total of 4 different background illustrations, printed either in blue or green. 

1 Balloons

Individual letters of the alphabet with capital letters depicted in balloon-like circles, partly twisted, birds flying around between them in the upper part; three girls are standing and sitting below. One girl has let fly a letter balloon (Z) and in her other hand a cat on a leash, one girl is sitting and looking at the cat, another girl is still holding the leash for the balloon with the letter A in her hand, but the little dog to her left has broken away from the leash in her other hand.

2 The boy fishing

The boy fishing is standing bent over on the top left of the page, holding his fishing rod in a body of water in which simple fish are swimming and a water plant can be seen on the bottom right.

3 soap bubbles

Two girls or a girl and a boy are blowing soap bubbles into the air, they are standing at the bottom of the page, next to them a dog in front of its food bowl, next to them a stool on which a container with the soap bubble liquid is standing. At the top of the page, two angel turkeys fly through the picture and try to catch the soap bubbles.

4 playing children

The background illustration shows children playing. At the top of the picture, boys carry a small flag from right to left, then children can be seen playing with balls, with dolls and doll carriages or bending down to a plant while pulling a duck on a board behind them.

There is a French mnemonic for each letter side of the alphabet. This is printed in eye-catching typography under the illustration. The mnemonics, which, by the way, are also good for finding a French first name, are:  

A - Amélie et son Ane s'avancent dans l'allée plantee d'arbes.
B - Bernard met son bateau dans la baignoire
C - Colette dans ca cabane donne des coquelicots à son cabri.
D - Denis dîne du dos d'un dodu dindon
E - Elise appelle son écureuil pour jouer avec son éléphant
F - Firmint construit un fort au pied de la falaise
G - Giséle a acheté des gàteaux pour son goûter
H - Hector regarde l'heure à l'horloge
I - Isabelle aime les images
J - Jean dans le jardin joue avec les jars
K - Kate admire son kangourou
L - Léopold sort avec sa lanterne pour attirer les lucioles
M - Martin avec médor garde ses moutons
M - Marguerite cueille du muguet au mois de mai
N - Nicolas a trouvé un nid dans un noisetier
O - Odile sous son ombrelle respire l'odeur des oiellets 
P - Pierre près du pont peche des poissons
P - Paulette dans son panier porte du pain aux poules
Q - Quentin qui a mal aux quenottes boit de la tisane des quattes fleurs
R - Rosine écoute de rossignol chanter sa romance
S - Sylvain a peur d'une souris cachée dans son cabot
S - Sophie sommeille sur le sopha du salon
T - Thomas joue à la toupie aux tuileries
U - Ursule utilise ses ustensiles de cuisine
V - Vincent ca au village vendre son veau
V - Virginie va rendre des visites
W - Wilhelmine en waterproof regarde par la portiére de wagon
X - Xavier boit den cachette un verre des xérés
Y - Yvon dans sa yole brandit son yatagan
Z - Zoé sur un zébre se proméne au jardin zoologique

For all those who are not so proficient in French, here in translation

A - Amelie and her donkey walk into the tree-lined avenue.
B - Bernard puts his boat in the bathtub.
C - Colette in her hut feeds her kid with poppies.
D - Denis dines off the back of a fat turkey.
E - Elise calls a squirrel to play with her elephant.
F - Firmint is building a fort at the foot of the cliff.
G - Giséle has bought cake for her snack.
H - Hector looks at the grandfather clock to see what time it is.
I - Isabelle likes pictures
J - Jean is playing with the geese in the garden.
K - Kate admires her kangaroo
L - Leopold goes outside with his lantern to attract the fireflies.
M - Martin with Medor tending his sheep
M - Marguerite is picking lilies of the valley in May.
N - Nicolas has found a nest in a hazelnut bush.
O - Odile breathes in the scent of carnations under her umbrella. 
P - Pierre is fishing for fish by the bridge.
P - Paulette carries bread in her basket to the chickens.
F - Quentin, whose little teeth are hurting, drinks herbal tea made from four herbs
R - Rosina listens to the nightingale singing her romance.
S - Sylvain is afraid of a mouse hiding in his pendant.
S - Sophie slumbers on the sofa in the living room.
T - Thomas is playing with a spinning top in the Tuileries.
U - Ursula uses her kitchen utensils.
V - Vincent goes to the village to sell his calf.
V - Virginie goes to visit
W - Wilhelmine looks out of the car door.
X - Xavier secretly drinks a glass of sherry.
Y - Yvon swings his yatagan in his dinghy.
Z - Zoe rides a zebra into the zoo.

Each picture tells a little story. Boys and girls are more or less in balance. The pictures tell of everyday things, but also of small fears (mice), as well as of forbidden things (secretly drinking sherry), of travelling, of children's playful and serious contact with animals, of being sick, of eating and resting, of sleeping and smelling, of listening and experiencing the world inside and outside.

The sayings are so easy to remember. The illustrations make it easy to learn the stories told, the mnemonic sayings. Often animals or objects are shown in the cut-out, I think this makes it clear that the scenes continue outside the pictures.

The children's clothing is mostly light and summery and varied, their hair is almost uniformly long and straight or curly, many children wear hats. 

What can be seen is a microcosm in which only children, animals and toys can be seen. The drawings are far from threatening or frightening. The children are not shown statically, but in motion. The illustrations are drawn with great attention to detail, depth is created by objects in the foreground, middle and background.

The cover illustration

Giséle in front of the patisserie

The girl on the title is called Giséle, we meet her again at the letter G in a different dress.

There we also learn that she has just bought something for her snack or afternoon coffee in a patisserie. It says: Giséle a acheté des gàteaux pour son goûter.

We can't see the contents, the patissier has elaborately wrapped it in white paper, with a ribbon around it. Giséle is holding the small package in her right hand, with an orange umbrella tucked under her left arm.

Giséle is elegantly dressed. Perhaps the first indicator of this are the white gloves on her hands. She is wearing a light orange dress printed with red hearts and with a black trimmed neckline. The dress has short arms and is laced at the waist. She wears a hat of the same colour with a black hatband. Giséle wears black shoes with white gaiters and short, light orange stockings with narrow, vertical red stripes to match the dress.

She has red, curly hair, small black button eyes and a doll-like small mouth and striking red cheeks. Whether it's because she's excited about shopping or because she's just a lively, healthy young girl, we don't know.

Behind Giséle, an elegant-looking, slender, white-and-black pied dog romps along the sand-coloured path in front of the patisserie. We can only guess if he belongs to her, his muzzle is turned towards her but there is no leash connecting the dog to Giséle.

It looks as if the elegant Giséle has just left the patisserie, you can see the shop with its pine-green painted façade directly behind her. Maybe it's even the door behind her, it's inscribed with the words Patisserie in decorative black and yellow striped letters diagonally, the windows shimmering bluishly. In the displays you can see some pastries, but not make them out clearly. There are some tomatoes in a pile on the left of the display, and an elaborate box on a shelf in the top centre of the shop window.

The illustration leaves a lot open, which is cause for joy for children and adults alike. There is a lot of room for imagination here.

The letter A

Amélie and her donkey

For the letter A, the original reads under the three-colour illustration: "A - Amélie et son Ane s'avancent dans l'allée plantee d'arbes". - Amelie and her donkey walk into the avenue planted with trees.

Stylishly, of course, the avenue leads to the inside of the book and not out of it. In the background, the grey donkey loaded with a white and red can be seen walking down the avenue. Against a tiered blue sky are grey trees and behind them a meadow surrounded by a white wooden fence. The trees bear red, pointed leaves, perhaps it is already autumn?

Amélie runs after the donkey. Amélie is carrying a doll in her hands. Maybe she wants to put the doll in the carrier?

Amélie is wearing a pretty light dress with a blue and red floral pattern on it, and she is wearing short white socks with red shoes. Her dark curly hair is covered by a knitted red cap. The doll wears a dress with a blue and red criss-crossing striped pattern. The doll has red socks with white shoes. Amélie's look seems a little surprised or astonished, but maybe I'm just imagining it.

In the foreground are a few tulips, some of them almost faded.

The letter B

Bernard and his bathtub

The illustration reads: "Bernard met son bateau dans la baignoire" - "Bernard puts his boat in the bathtub".

In front of an impressive, picture-perfect white and red square-tiled backsplash, we see Bernard bending over a grey, free-standing bathtub and launching his white sailboat. Parts of the sailboat are hidden by the edge of the bathtub, we don't know if there is more floating in the tub.

Bernard wears a white sailor suit, white socks and black shoes to match the sailboat and kneels with one leg on a green upholstered chair. We see no face of him, only the back of his head. Whether he is happy or not is left to the back of his head as a projection surface for our imagination. In the best sense of Billy Wilder, who once said that he would only film crying people from behind, because the sadness would then only arise in the viewer's mind.

Fazit

Unschuldiger Kinderkosmos

As a mother of three children and practised in illustrating children's books for several years, Marie-Madeleine Franc-Nohain (or Madeleine-Amélie Franc-Nohain) creates an innocent cosmos all her own, full of ideas and imagination. She illustrates a child's life as it probably no longer exists in its innocence and peace and probably only existed like this for an elite at the time. In part, the children in the illustrations act like little adults, they go shopping on their own, take large animals out or for a walk (donkey, zebra), go to market with calves or travel alone by train.

Everything is non-violent and peaceful. The environment is discovered indoors and outdoors. The readers, adults or children, still have plenty of room and space to continue the stories or to play them out.

The mnemonics are beautifully worded and for me, with my knowledge of French, a real pronunciation and text exercise - even in this article (All the alt-key combinations for the French circumflex letters.).

Its almost 100 years of age does not show or tell on the book. It is a document of the design of the thirties of the 20th century worth seeing and reading and testifies to the high quality of the illustrations of this artist.

I would be very happy if this article would help her to become better known. Feel free to check out the other pages, the book is available digitally in the online archive of the Bibliothéque National de France.

First edition?

Other title and typography

By chance I found another edition of Alphabet en Images on ZVAB after finishing the article. According to the antiquarian bookshop and the entry in the 1926 Cotsen Children's Library directory with entry number 3470, it is a 1923 edition. If so, this edition would have been published before the one above and they would have printed the above edition in a new edition afterwards. Unfortunately, both this and the above edition lack dates of printing.

The cover is clearly different from the - probably - later edition above. The image motif is not cut out squarely but oval, and instead of a grotesque an Egyptienne with strongly accentuated serifs is used. Both title and author are printed centred over the image. The chosen motif also differs from the second edition.

Here, Giséle from the letter G is not shown in front of the patisserie, but the illustration shows the two girls from the inside title sitting under a tree.

Many thanks to Franziska Bierl, from the antiquarian bookshop Franziska Bierl in Eurasburg, who kindly gave me permission to publish the picture here. This is not a matter of course for me. 

As of today, 18.02.2022, this edition can still be purchased at ZVAB.