Bio
William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was the youngest of the three artist sons of a wood engraver. Born in Hornsey Rise, north London, he studied at Islington School of Art and briefly at the Royal Academy Schools. His grandfather, Thomas Robinson, had been a bookbinder working in Newcastle for the famous wood engraver, Thomas Bewick, and subsequently took up engraving and illustrating himself. It is not surprising, therefore, that all three brothers – Thomas, Charles and William – became book and magazine illustrators. William was still in his twenties when he was commissioned, with other young artists – Helen Stratton, A.D. McCormick, A. L. Davis and A. E. Norbury – to illustrate a collection of stories from The Arabian Nights, published in 1899. William's contribution was by far the largest and the best, demonstrating the beauty of line and composition that characterized his illustrations for other literary classics. But now he is chiefly remembered for his humorous drawings and the weird contraptions that gave his name to the English language for any mechanical device 'absurdly complicated in design and having a simple function'. At the Memorial Exhibition after his death, one of his few peers in comic drawing, Nicolas Bentley, compared him to Leonardo da Vinci, claiming that Heath Robinson 'had the advantage of Leonardo, in that some of his inventions did at least look as if they might have worked'.W. Heath Robinson Books
Shakespeare's Comedy of A Midsummer-Night's Dream - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
William ShakespeareBill the Minder - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
W. Heath RobinsonThe Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
Charles KingsleyA Song of the English - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
Rudyard KiplingThe Fairy Tale Art of W. Heath Robinson
Pook PressHans Andersen's Fairy Tales - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
Hans Christian AndersenThe Giant Crab and Other Tales from Old India - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
W. H. D. RouseThe Talking Thrush and Other Tales from India - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
W. H. D. RouseSome 'Frightful' War Pictures - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
W. Heath RobinsonThe Dead King - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
Rudyard KiplingThe Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan PoeAladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
W. Heath RobinsonLittle Red Riding Hood and Other Stories
Charles PerraultThe Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan PoeFairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen - Illustrated by Thomas, Charles and W. Heath Robinson
Hans Christian AndersenOld-Time Stories Told by Master Charles Perrault - Illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
A. Johnson