Although I've loved fairy tales since I was a child, the majority of those tales don't actually contain specific beings called fairies (or faeries) at all.* It was not until college, studying folklore and myth, that I discovered the old faery stories of the British Isles -- which are strange, sensual, earthy tales about creatures far removed from the innocent little sprites popularized by modern children's books. This piqued my curiosity, and led me to search out other faery traditions around the world....ranging from the wood-wives of Sweden to the fox faeries of Japan to the Little People of the Cherokee tribe.
It was also while I was in college that a hugely influential book came into my hands: Faeries, full of gorgeous paintings and drawings by British artists Brian Froud and Alan Lee. I spent hours pouring over that book -- for it pictured the faeries properly as spirits of nature rooted in the landscape, as dangerous as they are alluring. The specific landscape that had inspired the art in Faeries was Dartmoor, a magical corner of England that is particularly steeped in in legend and myth. What I didn't know then, when I first read Faeries, was that I would one day live on Dartmoor myself. And that Brian and Alan would be my neighbors there. And that my background in folklore studies would lead to working with Brian and others on the following books about the faeries. . . .
Faery Art and Lore:
Faeries had been an international bestseller -- and yet, strangely enough, Brian found it difficult to interest publishers in a follow-up book. They wanted him to paint something new -- dragons, witches, anything. . .to which he kept patiently explaining that he was a faery painter, not a general illustrator (in the old British tradition of faery painting) and that faeries (not dragons, not fantasy in general) were his life's passion and realm of expertise. For many years, nonetheless, Brian was stymied in all his efforts to get another faery book into print (although he made two enormously popular children's films with the great Jim Henson in the meantime: The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth). Then he had a brainstorm and tried a new approach. He proposed a funny book about the faeries, coming up with the idea of a Victorian young lady who "pressed" faeries between book pages, much as her compatriots pressed and collected flowers. (I still remember the hilarious dinner party at which Brian, his wife Wendy, and his friend/agent Robert Gould came up with the idea of "squashed faeries.") Brian's friend Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, agreed to write the text for the book, and thus Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book was born. It, too, was a bestseller -- and publishers took notice that readers were still interested in faeries.
Now Brian was free to create the book he'd wanted to make all along: Good Faeries, Bad Faeries, a visual exploration of the faery realm ranging from the old folklore tradition to faeries in the modern world. This time the book's text would be by Brian himself, discussing his pictures and his personal perception of the faery realm. But Brian had never written a book before...and that's where I came in. My job was to help him organize his thoughts and turn them into prose -- as well as to contribute research and text on the folklore end of the project.
It was a real honor to work on Good Faeries, Bad Faeries with one of the most original and beloved artists of our day -- and absolutely fascinating to be engaged in Brian's creative process from the germ of the idea to the completed book.
For more information about Brian and his extraordinary vision of the faery realm, see "Portrait Painter to the Faeries" in the Journal of Mythic Arts archives, and visit the World of Froud website.
Faery Fiction:
Brian Froud's manager/agent Robert Gould has worked closely with Brian for many years. The "Faerielands" series was his creation, for which the basic concept was this: Brian would create four paintings and a large number of drawings, containing a wide variety of faery forms. Then four fiction writers would divide the art between them, and each would go home to write a novella inspired by pictures. (A novella, for those who don't know, is longer than a short story, but not so long or complex as a full novel.) Then these four novellas would be published in four handsome little editions, lavishly illustrated with Brian's art. The writers who were invited to participate were Charles de Lint, Patricia A. McKillip, Midori Snyder, and me. I was also asked to edit the books, and to assist Brian with writing the introductions.
Alas, due to problems with the book packging company that the series was contracted through, only the first two of them, by Charles and Pat, were published as "Faerieland" volumes, and only in small, hard-to-find editions. When the series abruptly ended, Midori and I lengthened our manuscipts into full novels and gave them to our own publishers. We had Brian's blessing for these new publications -- but not his art, which was tied up with the old series packager. Brian very kindly created a whole new painting for the UK edition of my book, however. And he allowed The Journal of Mythic Arts to reproduce some of the original Faerielands art here.
The "Faerielands" books:
#1. The Wild Wood by Charles de Lint (Faerielands edition: Bantam Books, current edition: Tor Books)
#2. Something Rich and Strange by Patricia A. McKillip, (Faerielands edition: Bantam Books) -- winner of the Mythopoeic Award
#3. Hannah's Garden by Midori Snyder (Viking Press)
#4. The Wood Wife by Terri Windling (Tor Books in the US, Legend Books in the UK)
-- winner of the Mythopoeic Award
More Faery Fiction:
The Faery Reel is part of the "Mythic Fiction" anthology series which Ellen Datlow and I created for Viking Press. The book contains original stories (for teen and adult readers) inspired by faery folklore from around the world. The cover art and charming interior illustrations are by Charles Vess -- who, like Brian Froud, has spent a long time wandering the roads of Faerie. The authors in the volume include Holly Black, Emma Bull, Charles de Lint, Gregory Maguire, Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, Kelly Link, and Patricia McKillip. The Faery Reel was a World Fantasy Award nominee, and Kelly Link's fabulous story for the book, "The Faery Handbag," won the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. (Bravo, Kelly!) You can read it online here.
Faery, published many moons ago when I was a young sprout of an editor at Ace Books, also contained stories about faery realms world-wide, and was also a World Fantasy Award nominee. Contributors to the volume included Angela Carter, John Crowley, Nicholas Stuart Gray, Patricia McKillip, Robin McKinley, Theodore Sturgeon, and Jane Yolen.
Faeries on the Web:
The online Journal of Mythic Arts, which I co-edit with Midori Snyder, devoted its Summer/Autumn 2006 Double Issue to the subject of faeries. The issue contains: articles on faery lore in Italy, Hunagry, Korea, Costa Rica, and North America. . . faery fiction by Kevin Brockmeier, Irish writer Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, and Native American writer Carolyn Dunn. . .art by Ernie Sandidge, Alan Lee, Iain McCaig and Charles Vess. . . and much more.
Faery Books for Children:
Wendy Froud is an exceptionally talented sculptor who draws on folklore and myth for inspiration, using various materials to bring magical creatures to life in three-dimensions. I deeply enjoyed collaborating with Wendy on three children's books about a tribe of faeries living in the woods of Dartmoor: Midsummer Night's Faery Tale, The Winter Child and The Faeries of Spring Cottage (published as the "Old Oak Wood" series by Simon & Schuster).
You'll find more information on the Old Oak Wood series here (scroll down to the bottom of the page), as well as on my two other faery tales for children: The Changeling and The Raven Queen.
You can watch a litle flash movie for The Winter Child here, on the World of Froud website.
And you can read an interview with young Sneezle himself, over on the Green Man Review website.
Sneezle Rootmuster Rowanberry Boggs the Seventh 
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* Fairy tales are generally stories about human characters in worlds invested with magic, rather than tales about the fairies. The term "fairy tale" comes from the French "conte de fées," which was the name of an art form that arose from the literary salons of 17th century Paris. The German word marchen, or "wonder tale," is probably a better label for such stories. More information on fairy tales can be found here.
Art credits: The fairy painting at the top of the page is by Arthur Rackham. The "Hannah's Garden" book cover art is by Steven Kenny. The "Faery Reel" cover art is by Charles Vess. The"Faery" cover art is by Dawn Wilson. The "Autumn/Summer" fairy painting is by John Anster Fitzgerald. The "Old Oak Wood" series art is by Wendy Froud. All other art is by Brian Froud.
