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Terri
Registered User
(8/5/01 12:20:27 am)
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Adrienne Segur
I'm still trying to find biographical information for Adrienne Segur, the French fairy tale artist active around the 1950s, best known in the U.S. as the illustrator of The Golden Book of Fairy Tales translated by Marie Ponsot, recently reissued by Golden Books. Her work has had a huge influence on me, and I want to do an article on her for the Endicott web site, but I can't seem to find any real information. Since we have some new people here on this board since the last time we discussed Segur, I thought I'd raise the question again.
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(8/5/01 2:27:36 pm)
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Re: Adrienne Segur
Terri,
First, did you see that Golden Books is reissuing Ponsot and Segur's "The Snow Queen and Other Stories" in October. Amazon has it up for preordering. It is also listed in Library of Congress, so it has already been catalogued.
I have not been able to find any biographical information on her yet, except for the title of Countess connected with her name on a book listing for "Misha the Little Brown Bear." (This was on a used book for sale listing, so I don't consider it to be substantiated until I find more evidence).
I also know she illustrated "My Big Book of Cat Stories," too. Have you seen any of these other books and might they have had any information about the illustrator? Biographical information in books wasn't as popular during the height of her career, but it might be there.
Since Golden may have been in contact with her or her estate for these reissues, have you considered contacting them for any information? As an industry insider, you may have more luck than some of the rest of us, at least with the speed of receiving an answer.
Also, a search for her in the Library of Congress produced a birthday year of 1901. That would make this year even more appropriate for an article to celebrate her 100th birthday. You were inspired. A death date is not listed, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened, especially for a foreign illustrator. LoC can be really slow with updating that information.
In Library of Congress, I also discovered she illustrated a French edition of "Alice au pays des merveilles" or "Alice in Wonderland" to us. The book was published in 1949 in Paris by Flammarion. I would love to see those illustrations. Flammarion, by the way, appears to have been her one of her primary publishers. Perhaps a look to see if they are still around would be helpful, too.
Her earliest title in LoC is "Aventures de Contonnet" in 1930 followed by "Cotonnet [sic], aviateur" in 1932 and "Contonnet en Amerique" in 1933. She apparently wrote and illustrated the Contonnet books. I wonder if Contonnet is a cat?
I will post this before it gets lost and then post a full list of the titles I found on LoC for you.
Heidi
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(8/5/01 2:53:42 pm)
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Segur Titles in Library of Congress
Conclusions: This should not be considered a definitive list of her work since it is only from Library of Congress. Also, her work expands from at least 1930 to 1970 in France although only a few of the titles and illustrations were reprinted by American publishers.
Here is the list in chronological order. I did not translate titles although if anyone really needs it, I can. Just ask.
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Personal Name: Ségur, Adrienne. [from old catalog]
Main Title: Aventures de Cotonnet,
Published/Created: Paris, Firmin-Didot et cie [c1930]
Description: 49 p., 1 l. col. mounted front., col. illus., col. mounted plates. 21x19 cm.
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Personal Name: Ségur, Adrienne.
Main Title: Cotonnet, aviateur, texte et dessins par Adrienne Ségur.
Published/Created: Paris, Firmin-Didot et cie [1932]
Description: 75, [1] p. col. illus., col. mounted plates. 21 x 19 cm.
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Personal Name: Ségur, Adrienne. [from old catalog]
Main Title: Cotonnet en Amérique,
Published/Created: Paris, Firmin-Didot et cie [1933]
Description: 80 p. col. mounted front., col. illus., col. mounted plates. 21 x 19 cm.
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Personal Name: [Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge], 1832-1898. [from old catalog]
Main Title: Alice au pays des merveilles
Uniform Title: [Alice's adventures in Wonderland. French [from old catalog]
Published/Created: Paris, Flammarion [1949]
Related Names: Ségur, Adrienne, 1901- [from old catalog] illus.
Description: p. cm.
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Main Title: Il était une fois ... Vieux contes français de Charles Perrault, Madame d'Aulnoy et Madame Le Prince de Beaumont. Illustrations d'Adrienne Ségur.
Published/Created: [Paris] Flammarion [1951]
Related Names: Perrault, Charles, 1628-1703.
Ségur, Adrienne, illus.
Description: 231 p. illus. (part col.) 34 cm.
Contents: La belle au bois dormant.--Peau d'Ane.--Le chat botté.--Cendrillon; ou, La pantoufle de vair.--Serpentin-Vert.--Gracieuse et Percinet.--L'oiseau bleu.--Le mouton.--Le Petit Poucet.--La Belle et la bête.--Le petit Chaperon rouge.--La biche au bois.--La chatte blanche.--Riquet à la Houppe.--La belle aux cheveux d'or.--Les fées.
Subjects: Fairy tales.
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Personal Name: Andersen, Hans Christian, 1805-1875. [from old catalog]
Main Title: Ib et Chistine, avec d'autres contes.
Uniform Title: [Tales. French [from old catalog]
Published/Created: [Paris] Flammarion, [1959, c1958]
Related Names: Ségur, Adrienne, [from old catalog] illus.
Description: 153 p. illus. 34 cm.
Subjects: Fairy tales. [from old catalog]
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Main Title: La Rose de Noël. Illustré par Adrienne Ségur.
Published/Created: [Paris] Flammarion [1962]
Related Names: Ségur, Adrienne, illus.
Description: 147 p. illus. (part col.) 37 cm.
Contents: Un berger, par H. Broun.--Noël chez les trolls, par Z. Topelius.--La où il y a l'amour, il y a Dieu, par L.
Tolsto¯i.--La légende de la sauge, par J. Roumanille.--Babouchka, par H. Troyat.--Le puits de l'étoile, par E. Goudge.--La très véridique légende du sapin de Noël, par M. Haedrich.--L'encens et la myrrhe, par H. Broun.--Le boeuf et l'ane de la crèche, par J. Supervielle.--Les premières roses de Noël, par A.I. Hazeltine.--Za¯ie, par F. Hodgson Burnett.--La légende du petit agneau gris, par H. Louis-Chevrillon.--La légende de la rose de Noël, par S. Lagerlöf.--La crèche de Ti-Bossu, par R. Sauyer.--La légende du rossignol, par L. Louis-Chevrillon.
Subjects: Children's stories, French.
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Main Title: Le Chat Jérémie et autres histoires de chats.
Published/Created: [Paris] Flammarion [1965]
Related Names: Ségur, Adrienne, [from old catalog] illus.
Description: 156 p. illus. (part col.) 34 cm.
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Main Title: My big book of cat stories. Illustrated by Adrienne Ségur.
Published/Created: New York, Golden Press [1967]
Related Names: Ségur, Adrienne, illus.
Description: 108 p. illus. (part col.) 33 cm.
Subjects: Cats--Juvenile fiction.
Children's stories.
Variant Series: A Deluxe golden book
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Main Title: L'Oiseau d'or; contes d'hier et d'aujourd'hui.
Published/Created: [Paris] Flammarion [1970]
Related Names: Ségur, Adrienne, [from old catalog] illus.
Description: 152 p. illus. (part col.) 33 cm.
Subjects: Fairy tales. [from old catalog]
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Edited by: Heidi Anne Heiner at: 8/5/01 2:56:15 pm
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(8/5/01 8:33:40 pm)
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Segur en francais
Zut Alors!
I have dusted off my French a little and tried searching for Segur in the French part of the world wide web. It would help if my computer was formatted for typing accents, etc. but I made a discovery. Bibliothèque nationale de France (French National Library) just closed an exhibit about fairy tales in June this year. They have an online exhibition, however, and both an exhibition catalog and book. (I would love to get my hands on them, but apparently you cannot order it online, only through a catalog. Might be too complicated for me to figure out for now.)
At least one Segur painting is online in the exhibition and perhaps the curator knows more about Segur. See the painting I found at:
www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/co...nd/114.htm
The link to the exhibition itself is:
www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/contes/index.htm
The information about the exhibit at the library is at:
www.bnf.fr/pages/expos/co.../index.htm
(It might be possible to use the location and address to ask for more help. There is an e-mail address there, too.)
The information about the exhibition books is at:
www.bnf.fr/pages/editions.../index.htm
It is a beautiful site, although the use of frames and flash makes some of the direct links difficult to determine. Hope all that I provided work.
And, non, I have not been working on this all day. I just got a bee in my bonnet to try the BnF and Yahoo France.
So Terri, while you are on that side of the world, if you happen to go to Paris, you might drop in at the library and pick up a copy of the catalog or even ask a question or two.
Heidi
PS: I guess I chose the right career when I can't quit playing librarian on my day off. : )
Edited by: Heidi Anne Heiner at: 8/5/01 8:38:37 pm
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Terri
Registered User
(8/6/01 12:46:54 am)
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Re: Segur en francais
Heidi,
Thank you for all this excellent information!!! I was actually in France in June, and I'm so sorry I didn't know about this exhibition -- to actually see a Segur original!!!! Damn, damn, damn -- what a lost opportunity!!! But I'll be back there in December, if all goes well, and I'll get hold of that catalog. Until then I'll see if some French speaking friends can help me make contact with the curator. I haven't had luck with Golden Books,
but I thought I might trying writing to Marie Ponsot through them.I'm thrilled that they're publishing The Snow Queen. I've seen a copy of it, but never owned one myself. And I haven't seen any of the others, though I knew The Big Book of Cats existed. The thought that there might be many illustrations published only in France that we've not yet seen makes me positively salivate...
The Comtesse de Segur was a 19th century French children's book writer (1799-1874), although she actually came from Russia and apparently had a childhood that was straight out of a fairy tale of the darker sort. I don't know if there's a direct family connection to Adrienne Segur. The French folklorist Pierre Dubois thought not, when I asked him last summer in Paris if he had any information on Adrienne Segur -- but he also admitted that he didn't know much about A.S. personally, just her work.
I will follow all these leads and let you know where they get me. If anyone else has any info, please post.
-- Terri
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(8/6/01 6:45:29 am)
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Re: Segur en francais
You're welcome, of course, Terri.
I get e-mails asking about Segur periodically--especially since a web search of her name usually produces this board. One request just arrived on Friday, I think. An article by you would solve my inability to provide more information.
Besides, the research is just plain fun for me.
I did learn about the Comtesse de Segur in my research yesterday, and I was wondering if she was related to Adrienne. I doubt it myself, but won't officially cross it off until I learn otherwise.
Heidi
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tlchang37
Unregistered User
(8/6/01 7:14:28 pm)
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Segur
Great info, Heidi!
I'd heard of the Bear and Cat books and I've seen the Snowqueen (Hurray for re-releasing!!! Must put an order in for that!) - and I've owned the most circulated Fairy Tale book since I was tiny - but had no idea about others.
Has anyone else even SEEN the Bear or Cat books? Their prices are a bit prohibitive on abe.com without knowing what they look like. And if the piece of art of hers that you gave the link for is any indication, her work changed alot throughout her career (not surprising. I recently bought a retrospective on another of my favorites - Susan Seddon Boulet - who died in 1997. Lots of evolution throughout her career. Still amazing work all the way around. Her 1970's stuff was very fairy tale and mythically themed. I was more aware of her starting in the early 80's when her style changed , which I like better - but some of her earlier stuff is well worth the look).
I've tried talking to Golden Books re: her as well - to no avail. As well as other obscure, illustrator resources (Bud Plant, Walt Reed, etc...) but all the sources I know pretty much deal in American art...
I'll be interested in anything you ladies come up with!
Tara
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