How Beloved are "Magic Pudding" & "Nargun and the Stars"?

Hello, Noddy.

In answer to the part of the question in your thread title: The Magic Pudding was a much-loved Oz childrens' yarn when I was growing up. I'm not sure if it's as popular these days, though. Norman Lindsay (the author) is a well-known Oz artist, also famous for erotic drawings of women & cats. (He was a great lover of women & cats! )

I'm not familiar with the other titles you mention, but then I was probably in the process of familiarizing myself with the English language (& reading lots of Enid Blyton!) when other children my age were reading them.
I'll bet others Oz A2Kers will be able to tell you more, though.

The Magic Pudding
Norman Lindsay (1879-1969)

The Magic Pudding has been a source of wonder and amusement for nearly 90 years: no matter how much the reader gets out of the story, there is, as with the Pudding itself, always something left.

But to its author, artist and writer, Norman Lindsay (1879-1969), the book was a ?'little bundle of piffle'. Written as a distraction from the horrors of World War 1 and his brother's death on the Somme, he thought it held him back as a serious writer.

The story arose out a professional disagreement Lindsay had with fellow writer, Bertram Stevens, who thought that fairies were the most popular subject for a children's story. Lindsay believed it was food. The pudding won.

The original artwork is derived from 102 drawings Lindsay made for the book in pencil, ink and watercolour.

The first edition was a limited-edition art book, costing the relatively high sum of £110. Lindsay opposed the cost: ?'I wouldn't have minded if it had come out as a kids' book, to be sold at a price that would allow the kid to tear it up with a clear conscience'.



One of the riginal illustrations for The Magic Pudding c.1918
crayon, pen and wash drawings mounted in large albums; 47.0 x 40.0cm

http://nationaltreasures.nla.gov.au/site/Treasures/item/nla.int-ex6-s17/nla.int-ex6-s17

Ms. Olga--

Thank you. That's the sort of musing I was hoping for.

I knew about the Magic Pudding, and read it...never liked it, though.

One of my friends when I was very young was in a children's theatre group, and I remember they did a production of it, and kept the papier mache pudding, which looked very evil....just as Lindsay drew him.


I have...very vaguely...heard of the Nargun and the Stars.....but that is all.

(Isn't it maddening when you revisit a thread & discover a glaring mistake in your post & can't change it?

Childrens': plural = apostrophe should be before the s, not after! )

Msolga--

Even Bold Homer nods.

Deb--

Thanks for the memories.