Part Two in a series entitled “Snail Tries to Clear Out his Header Topics Folder before the End of the Year”
HG Wells’s The War of the Worlds is a novel ripe for illustrating, nevermind adaptations, because of the author’s striking and vivid descriptions of the invading Martians and the infernal machines they use. The book was first published with realistic illustrations by the artist Warwick Goble in Pearson’s and Cosmopolitan in 1897. Wells himself however preferred the Brazilian-born Henrique Alvim Corrêa’s artwork, writing he “did more for my work with his brush than I with my pen”.
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1876, Corrêa had travelled to Europe to study in 1892 and eventually opened his own print studio in Brussels in 1900. Corrêa visited Wells to ask his permission to illustrate his work, and produced a total of 32 drawings. Just four years after they were published, the artist died of tuberculosis.
Sadly, in addition to his premature passing, the subsequent world wars were particularly destructive to his work. His studio in Belgium was looted during WWI, and a ship carrying some of his illustrations to Brazil was sunk by a German U-Boat in 1942. His and Goble’s artwork was largely forgotten for most of the ensuing century, only to be “re-discovered” in the internet age.
The complete set of Corrêa’s illustrations can be found here. I particularly love his conception of the tripods themselves, with sets of “windows” that resemble eyes. They’re ghoulishly cute.
Take care of yourselves and have an awesome Sunday!