When England knighted William Nicholson in 1936, it was in recognition of his international prominence as a painter of still lifes, lucid and sedate landscapes, and portraits, including such English luminaries as Max Beerbohm, Ellen Terry, and J. M. Barrie. While Nicholson's stature as a painter has not diminished since his death in 1949, his original accomplishments in the fields of graphic art, stage design, and book illustration have enjoyed greater critical attention, as has his work in children's literature. The artist's first books for children, appearing from 1897 to 1899, were boldly conceived graphic works for which Nicholson employed the technique of wood engraving as a medium of direct artistic expression rather than a means of transferring line drawings onto a page. Nicholson's An Alphabet (1898) and The Square Book of Animals (1900), sold both to collectors of art and to children, anticipated the modern elevation of children's book illustration to the level...