Thomas Handforth and Mei Li

Last week’s post on Carl Van Vechten reminded me that he shot a portrait of the author Thomas Handforth. Handforth (1897-1948), an American artist and teacher, is now best remembered for his children’s book Mei Li that was based on his experiences of China (and a real girl he met there) and has remained (at least until fairly recently) a perennial favourite kids book. It won the Caldecott Medal for illustration. The story deals with a young Chinese girl’s visit to a Chinese New Year festival in the countryside. It’s perhaps not the most politically correct book these days but the illustrations were charming (a selection below)….Handworth’s art was inspired by being given a book of Housaki’s drawings early on. In 1931 Handforth received a Guggenheim Fellowship for travel to China. He expected to spend two weeks in Peking, but stayed for six years, renting a space in an old courtyard house that had fallen into disrepair. In China he moved from etching to lithography because he felt that the spirit of China was better captured with a brush and a “greasy crayon.” The real Mei Li  was the youngest of four Chinese girls adopted by Helen Burton, an extremely well known and well connected American woman in Peking who owned The Camel’s Bell Shop in the lobby of the Peking Hotel (A good bio of Burton remains to be written I think – unless there’s one I don’t know about?)

Handforth by Van Vechten