Maria Louise Kirk (21 June 1860 – 21 June 1938), usually credited as M. L. Kirk or Maria L. Kirk, was an American painter and illustrator of more than fifty books, most of them for children.
In the 1890s, she went on to study at the Art Institute of Chicago[3] and in 1894 won the Mary Smith Prize of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, for a portrait.[4]
During her career, Kirk illustrated more than fifty books, including an American edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1904. Her style is individual, little influenced by the Jugendstil or Art Deco movements.[2]
Although she was a talented artist, with so much published work, little is known about Kirk's life. She died on her 78th birthday in 1938.[2]
A review of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1904) in The Advance magazine said of it "Fifty-seven illustrations by M. L. Kirk and John Tenniel will keep the small reader at fever heat."[6]
Fergus Hume, Chronicles of Fairyland (Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1911)
Sara Tawney Lefferts, ed., Land of Play: Verses, Rhymes and Stories (Cupples & Leon Co., 1911)
All Shakespeare's Tales: Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb, and Tales from Shakespeare by Winston Stokes (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1911)[8]
Inez N. McFee, The Story of Idylls of the King, adapted from Tennyson, by Inez N. McFee, with the original poem (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1912)[9]
Clayton Edwards, The Story of Evangeline, Adapted from Longfellow. With the Original Poem (New York: The Hampton Publishing Co., 1913)
Mrs Molesworth, The Cuckoo Clock (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1914)
F. J. Harvey Darton, The Story of the Canterbury Pilgrims Retold from Chaucer and Others (J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1914)[2]
George MacDonald, The Princess and Curdie (1914)[2]
Johanna Spyri, Heidi (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1915)[2]
^"Kirk, Maria Louise" in Dorothy B. Gilbert (ed.), Who's Who in American Art (New York: R. R. Bowker Co. 1970), p. 123
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m M. L. Kirk Biography, pookpress.co.uk; accessed October 14, 2021
^Robert Trexler, "Five early illustrators of At the Back of the North Wind" in Roderick McGillis, John Pennington (eds.), At the Back of the North Wind (Buffalo, New York: Broadview Press, 2011), Appendix E, p. 384
^Catalogue of the Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1914), pp. 10–11
^George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind, illustrated by Maria L. Kirk (London: Folio Society, 2009)
^The Advance (Advance Company, 1904), p. 676
^The Publishers' Weekly, September 30, 1893, p. 497
^Catalog of Copyright Entries: Books. Group 1 (1911), p. 4508
^Catalog of Copyright Entries: Books, Volume 9, 1912, p. 728
^ a b c dSusan-Ann Cooper, Aïda Hudson, Windows and Words: A Look at Canadian Children's Literature in English (Canadian Children's Literature Symposium, 2018), p. 218
^Monthly Bulletin, Volume 20 (St. Louis Public Library, 1922), p. 229: “Spyri , Frau J. Mäzli ; a story of the Swiss valleys; tr. by E. P. Stork; illus. in color by M. L. Kirk.”
^Wide Awake, Vol. 36, Issue 5 (1893), p. 385
External links
Maria L. Kirk, mutualart.com
"Mopsa the Fairy", upenn.edu
"Cornelli", loc.gov
"The Nürnberg Stove" by Ouida, 1909, gutenberg.org
"The Cuckoo Clock" by Mrs Molesworth, gutenberg.org