Methuen (MET)

Methuen & Co. Ltd., 36 Essex Street Strand, W.C.2, London.

Edmund Blampied was a good friend of Horace Cecil Hunt, the compiler of these books of howlers, the humorous misapprehensions of schoolchildren. The history of how the 'howlers' came about is told in Chapter 9 of Hunt's autobiography, called Authorbiography (Hutchinson, 1935), written when he was only 33 y old. Edmund and his wife used to stay with Cecil and Kathleen Hunt when they visited London after the war. Hunt died in 1954 aged 51 y; his wife Kathleen lived another 57 years and died in 2011 aged 107 y. She outlived both her sons.

Blampied designed bookplates for Hunt, for his son, David; and for his secretary Bettine Spear. Edmund is mentioned in Hunt's literary reminiscences, Ink in My Veins (Robert Hale, 1948) which reproduces a photograph of Blampied at his easel taken by a photographer from The Jersey Evening Post, probaby in about 1938.

From the dust jacket of The Best Howlers (Benn, 1949)

● Click on the thumbnail to see a large image; click on the link to see details of each book and an image, if available.

— 1937 —

MET-37.1: Hand-Picked Howlers by Cecil Hunt, illustrations by Blampied (Dust jacket, covers, endpapers, title page and internal illustrations)

— 1938 —

MET-38.1: More Hand-Picked Howlers by Cecil Hunt, illustrations by Blampied (Dust jacket, covers, endpapers, title page and internal illustrations)

— 1939 —

MET-39.1: Ripe Howlers by Cecil Hunt, illustrations by Blampied (Dust jacket, covers, endpapers, title page and internal illustrations)

— 1940 —

MET-40.1: Hand-Picked Proverbs by Cecil Hunt, illustrations by Blampied (Dust jacket, covers, endpapers, title page and internal illustrations)

MET-40.2: Laughing Gas - the Best Jokes by Cecil Hunt (Dust jacket, covers, endpapers, title page and internal illustrations)