Gordon Browne

Browne illustrated six or seven books a year.[9] His historical research for his illustrations was painstaking. He assembled a collection of armour, helmets, pistols, daggers, swords, uniforms, and even saddles. When working, he would refer to these constantly to ensure his depictions of historic dress and arms were accurate.[7]

Browne took great care that he understood the text he was illustrating. He would read the text first, and then read it again to identify the details of the scene to be illustrated.[10] Such was Browne's renown for his careful research that George Bernard Shaw, in a review of Stories of Old Renown by Ascot R. Hope said: Mr. Hope describes Guy of Warwick as unhorsed, and fighting the dragon with his sword after he has been thrown and has lost his spear. Mr. Gordon Browne's illustration shows Guy on horseback fighting with his sword. Which is right? [11]

Browne illustrated fourteen of G. A. Henty's novels, including the first seven published by Blackie and Son.[12] One of these was "Facing Death: The Hero of the Vaughan Pit: A Tale of the Coal Mines." This was first published by Blackie in 1882 with six drawings by Gordon Browne. A second version of the first edition was published in the same year, but this time with eight illustrations as shown here.[13]

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  Bulldog finds a friend
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  In the old shaft - will he be saved
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  Nelly's first lesson
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  A life and death struggle
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  Jack is victorious
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  The new school mistress
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  After the first explosion - the search party
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  Saved

The range of authors whose books were illustrated by Brown is extensive and the list, drawn from a range of sources[14][15] includes:

• Grant Allen (1848 – 1899), a Canadian science writer and novelist.
• Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875), a prolific Danish author best remembered for his fairy tales.
• Sir Edwin Arnold (1832 – 1904), an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work The Light of Asia.
• Helen Atteridge (1856 – 1931), author of children's fiction.[16]
• R. M. Ballantyne (1825 – 1894), a prolific Scottish author of juvenile fiction and an accomplished water-colourist.
• Alice Banks, who wrote books for young children.
• R. D. Blackmore (1825 – 1900), an English novelist now best remembered for Lorna Doone.
• Catherine Christian (1901 – 1895), an English novelist, known for her children's books and re-telling of Arthurian legends.
• Harry Collingwood (1843 – 1922), a writer of boys' adventure fiction, usually in a nautical setting.
• Alice Corkran (1843 – 1916), an Irish author of children's fiction and an editor of children's magazines and annuals.
• E. E. Cowper (1859 – 1933), Edith Eliza Cowper, a prolific English author of juvenile fiction, much of which was published by the SPCK, who had eight children by Frank Cowper, yachtsman and author, from whom she separated shortly after the last of her children was born.
• Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1859 – 1914), a prolific Scottish novelist, who wrote more than 60 books.
• F. J. Harvey Darton (1878 – 1936), an author, publisher, and historian of children's literature.
• Countess d'Aulnoy (c. 1650 – 1705), a French writer best known for her fairy tales.
• Daniel Defoe (c. 1659 – 1731), who wrote Robinson Crusoe and A Journal of the Plague Year among other works.
• Miguel de Cervantes (c. 1547 – 1616), a Spanish writer best known for Don Quixote.
• Evelyn Everett-Green (1856 – 1932), who moved from pious stores for children, through historical romances, to adult romances under a range of pseudonyms.
• Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841 – 1885), an English writer of children's stories, which show both an insight into childhood and a strong religious faith.
• B. L. Farjeon (1838 – 1903), a prolific English novelist, playwright, printer and journalist.
• Frederick Farrar (1831 – 1903), an Anglican cleric, schoolteacher, and author of essays and of boys' school stories.
• George Manville Fenn (1831 – 1909), a prolific author of fiction for young adults.
• Amy Le Feuvre (1861 – 1929), a prolific author of books for children with a Christian message.[17]
• Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1777 – 1843), a German writer of the Romantic style.
• Jean Froissart (c . 1337 – c. 1405), a French-speaking medieval author and court historian whose work embodied the chivalric revival.
• Thomas Guthrie (1803 – 1873), a Scottish religious preacher and philanthropist.
• George Halse (1826 – 1895), an English sculptor, novelist, and poet.
• Herbert Hayens (1861 – 1944), who wrote juvenile fiction and school-books
• G. A. Henty (1832 – 1902), a prolific writer of boy's adventure fiction, often set in a historical context, who had himself served in the military and been a war correspondent.
• Silas Hocking (1850 – 1935), a prolific Cornish novelist and a Methodist preacher.
• Edwin Hodder (1837 – 1904), a prolific author on many topics including travel, geography, history, and religion.[18]
• Ascott R. Hope (1846 – 1927), a prolific author of children's books, especially school stories, and of Black's Guides.
• Frank Hudson, an English novelist who wrote on sporting topics and for children.[19]
• Washington Irving (1783 – 1859), an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat who wrote Rip Van Winkle and other stories.
• Harry Jones (1823 – 1900), an Anglican cleric and author, magazine contributor and editor, and a chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria.[20]
• Andrew Lang (1844 – 1912), the prolific Scottish author interested in folk and fairy tales.
• Lord Tennyson (1809 – 1892), the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign.
• Mary MacLeod (1859 – 1914), an editor and publisher's reader who summarised stories from Shakespeare and others for children.[21]
• John Masefield (1878 – 1967), an English poet and writer, and UK Poet Laureate from 1930 – 1967.
• L. T. Meade (1844 – 1914), Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith, a prolific Irish writer of stories for girls.
• Mrs Molesworth (1839 – 1921), n English writer of children's stories, who also wrote adult novels under a pseudonym.
• Alice T. Morris (1851 – 1955), wrote illustrated books for young children, married book designer and graphic artist Talwin Morris.
• E. Nesbit (1858 – 1924), an English poet and novelist who wrote The Railway Children among other works.
• Barry Pain (1864 – 1928), an English  journalist, poet and writer.
• Charles Reade (1814 – 1884), an English novelist and dramatist,.
• Talbot Baines Reed (1852 – 1893),  an English writer of boys' fiction, especially school stories.
• William Clark Russell (1844 – 1911), an English writer, best known for his novels in nautical settings.
• George Edmund B. Saintsbury (1845 – 1933), an English writer, literary historian, scholar, critic and wine connoisseur.
• Walter Scott (1771 – 1832), the Scottish historical novelist, poet, and historian who wrote Ivanhoe.
• William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), the Bard of Avon.
• R. L. Stevenson (1850 – 1894), the Scottish poet and novelist who wrote Treasure Island and other adventure fiction.
• Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745), an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, pamphleteer, poet and cleric, best remembered for Gulliver's Travels.
• Georgina M. Synge (1858 – 1911), who wrote books for young children, and on travel.
• William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 – 1863), a British novelist, author and illustrator born in India, best known for Vanity Fair.
• Ethel Sybil Turner (1870 – 1958), an English-born Australian novelist and writer of children's fiction.
• Percy Westerman (1875 – 1959), a prolific author of boys' adventure fiction, many with military and naval themes.

Browne wrote and illustrated several books for young children using the pen name A. Nobody. The following shows an example of the simplified style he used for young children.

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  Front Cover
• 
  Frontispiece
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  Title page
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  Page 1
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  Page 2
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  Page 3
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  Page 4
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  Page 5
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  Page 6
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  Page 7
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  Page 8
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  Page 9
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  Page 10
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  Page 11
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  Page 12
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  Page 13
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  Page 14
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  Page 15
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  Page 16
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  Page 17
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  Page 18
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  Page 19
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  Page 20
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  Page 21
• 
  Back Cover

Browne illustrated for many magazines. The following list is based on page 79 of Kirkpatrick,[22] the source is indicated where names have been drawn from other sources:

• Andy[23]

The following example of magazine illustration shows the scale of work involved in illustrating even a single serial story. The Sorceress of the Strand by L T Meade and Robert Eustace appeared as a serial in the Strand Magazine volumes 24 and 25 in 1902 – 1903. It was copiously illustrated by Browne.

• 
  Do you want a match, sir?
• 
  I am a beautifier
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  This is my sanctum sanctorum
• 
  Why are you afraid of her
• 
  She bowed, and the peculiar look she had before given me flashed over her face
• 
  She jumped up from the table
• 
  I counsel you, Mr. Selby, to guard your life
• 
  I had lost to him nearly £200,000!
• 
  Vandeleur in an open fly dashed through
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  Lady Kennedy told me all about it
• 
  It must be done
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  She is preparing to convulse society
• 
  Forewarned is forearmed
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  We quite understand each other, don't we, nurse?
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  Madame wrote something on her neck
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  What is it, little one?
• 
  Rebecca Curt was standing in the middle of the room
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  She treated her with a rare want of sympathy
• 
  How kind of you to come
• 
  He dashed headlong down
• 
  You must not scold me
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  You mean Madame Sara?
• 
  A phlegmatic-looking man opened the door for us
• 
  There in the moonlight...
• 
  Either you are the spectre, or it is supernatural
• 
  Beneath the window lay a dark, huddled heap
• 
  Professor Pozzi entered
• 
  You exceed the limits of propriety
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  Ah! There are few women so kind
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  Who would want to take my life?
• 
  I will revenge myself on Madame to the last drop of my blood
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  I am sorry to hear of his illness
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  Are your operations for securing patent rights complete?
• 
  He reeled and made a lunge forward
• 
  It is a curious fact
• 
  Don't look at me
• 
  I observed a man
• 
  I do not know envy Ali Khan his billet
• 
  Heaven help me!
• 
  Look closely at it if you will
• 
  A man with a mask over his face approached her
• 
  Two minutes later we were rushing through the night towards London
• 
  Laura's old nurse thrust a note into his hand
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  My friend, Sir Joseph Dixby
• 
  You are certain you will not turn coward?
• 
  She lashed the animal
• 
  She sat still
• 
  The smile faded from his face
• 
  There is no help whatever in that direction
• 
  The great Madame Sara