Terrance Lindall: WCIAL and Elephant Folio Update

War in Heaven

Terrance Lindall

Yuko Nii Foundation

Readers might recall that I was recently accepted as a founding member of the Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters (WCIAL), so even though I cannot attend the first meeting, I consider one of my responsibilities to be that of promoting such events, so here is Mr. Terrance Lindall's announcement:

We will have a WCIAL Dinner on the evening of the 14th of April, our FIRST OPEN MEETING of the circle. Cocktails are from 6-7 PM followed by dinner. We will have a microphone so Members can get up and say a few words and talk about their projects or make proposals to the Circle and tell us what they are doing. Also, there may be some poetry read and there will be light music also. Our own genius composer Peter Dizozza will be doing something unique, I am sure. We expect it to be, as Thomas Campbell said in his letter, ". . . a great success" . . . .

After our first meeting, we will be developing a team of young scholars to develop a curriculum with the idea of approaching the schools locally with proposals to engage the students. This will take some time. We know this part of our efforts will be the test of what we can accomplish.

Part of the WCIAL's aim is to interest high school students in classic works such as Milton's Paradise Lost. Mr. Lindall's magnum opus will perhaps be his Paradise Lost Elephant Folio, an illustration of which you see above. The Milton expert Dr. Robert J. Wickenheiser, who is also a collector of books -- especially books relevant to the works of Milton -- has written a commentary on the significance of Lindall's Milton illustrations:

Without a doubt, Terrance Lindall is the foremost illustrator of Paradise Lost in our age, comparable to other great illustrators through the ages, and someone who has achieved a place of high stature for all time.

Throughout almost four centuries of illustrating Milton's Paradise Lost, no one has devoted his or her life, artistic talents and skills and the keenness of the illustrator's eye more fully and few as completely as Terrance Lindall has done in bringing to life Milton's great epic. He has also devoted his brilliant mind to studying Milton, his philosophy, and his theology in order to know as fully as possible the great poet to whom he has devoted his adult life and to whose great epic he has devoted the keenness of his artistic eye in order to bring that great epic alive in new ways in a new age and for newer ages still to come.

High praise indeed, and those are just Dr. Wickenheiser's opening remarks. He proceeds to back up his remarks with evidence. As for Mr. Lindall, he tells us that:

Bob Wickenheiser and I are . . . now looking into bindings for his Paradise Lost Elephant Folio and we are communicating with the world's foremost bookbinding artist/craftsman Herb Weitz. You can see some of the luxury bindings he does here.

This particular copy of the Elephant Folio will thus be a work of art from its illustrations to its cover. More of the illustrations can be seen here.

Any readers with an interest in art and/or John Milton and who are close enough to New York City to make the trip, feel free to attend the first meeting on April 14, 2012, which will be held at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center.

Tell them the Gypsy sent you . . .