Cicely Mary Baker  (1895-1973)

Here is an wonderful example of a fairy book by cicely mary baker.  I love to collect children's books from the 1800's and was lucky enough to acquire one of these precious fairy books a few years back.

Cicely M Barker was born in Croydon, a small town south of London, on 28th June 1895. In 1907 her family came to live at 17 The Waldrons where they stayed until their move to number 23 in 1924. Cicely enrolled in evening classes at the Croydon School of Art and in 1910 she began to make postcards, a popular means for artists to bring their art to the public.

Cicely furthered her artistic career by sketching children and translating them into pictures of children at work, at play, in religious, literary and national themes during the First World War. The best known are 'Shakespeare's Children', 'Children of the Allies' and the delightful early 'Fairy Cards'. When Cicely's father died in 1912 she began to dedicate her art to the Pre-Raphaelite movement In the peaceful atmosphere of The Waldrons, Cicely began to create the Flower Fairies. First published in 1923 and reprinted many times the books have passed into our literary and artistic history as children's classics.

Cicely Mary Barker died in Worthing Hospital in 1973. The centenary of her birth (1995) rekindled local and professional interest once more. Publishers Frederick Warne, who had reissued all the original Flower Fairy books, produced a biography 'Cicely Barker and her Art' by Jane Laing to co-incide with the centenary.

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