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Thomas Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh (NEL)

35 & 36 Paternoster Row, London E.C.4 and Parkside Works, Edinburgh


This is the main entry on a publisher for whom Blampied worked for six years, between 1917 and 1922, although the last original book was probably not published until 1924. Many concurrent and later titles re-used Blampied's illustrations, which I have listed; there are probably more to find. Nelson's also published books in French from their house in Paris, which are listed separately as Nelson Éditeurs and in their Continental Library, which were not for sale in the U.K., and are also listed separately.

Many of Nelson's children's books including At the Farm, were also sold in the U.S.A., as copies with stickers of American bookshops have been seen and some titles are available to buy from U.S. book dealers. At least one unique title was published by Nelson's in New York and was printed in the U.S.A., although it used material from British books.

Most titles were not dated, so the year of publication has been taken from the dates of letters sent to Blampied by Edwin Chater Jack of Thomas Nelson and Sons in Edinburgh, either to commission the designs or to acknowledge their receipt. These letters are in the Nelson Archive at Edinburgh University. There are gaps in letters because some files have been lost. The letters had been left in an attic in Nelson's factory at Parkside in Edinburgh. When the building was about to be demolished in the 1970s the Librarian at the University was asked if they would like to have the files. He sent a van down to the site and recovered all the files that he could remove. The 64 linear metres of files have not yet been catalogued.

Image of cover

Front cover of Blampied's book of drawings for young children.


I visited the archive in 1999 and found in 24 files of correspondence about 150 letters sent to Blampied or to his brother John, who latterly acted as his agent, written between 18th October 1916 and 14th November 1922. The files of letters covered periods between 34 and 94 days, and contained correspondence with all writers and illustrators. I estimated from gaps in dates that about 10 files of letters were missing. There were also a few letters written by Edmund Blampied to Edwin Jack.

Blampied started work for Nelson's at the end of 1916 but he was called up to join the Royal Jersey Garrison Batallion in July 1917, so stopped work. However he obviously found in early 1918 that he had time to continue to work for Nelson, as the letters begin again in April 1918, after a missing file covering the months of February and March 1918.

Two dust jackets designed for books in Nelson's Red Library have not been found; they are known only from the letters commissioning the design. And there are at least two titles, if not more, in missing correspondence: the novels Guy and Pauline and The Little Lady of the Big House, both in Nelson's Continental Library, have been identified but they are not described in letters from Edwin Jack.

Nelson's often re-used Blampied's illustrations for children's books, usually in the children's annuals or in later collections of stories or in picture books. If the content is not original, the original source is stated. As these books are almost never dated, the date of publication is usually taken from the accession date of the copy seen in the Bodleian Library, where I saw many titles between 1998 and 2000. I entered all the information into a database on a Psion Series 3 palmtop and later transferred it to Microsoft Access. If there was no copy in the Bodleian Library, then it was dated from copies listed in Jisc, the joint academic and copyright libraries catalogue, which includes the British Library.

You can find more information about these books and how Blampied combined his military service in Jersey with fulfilling commissions to design dust jackets, here:

Andrew Hall (1999). Edmund Blampied's illustrations for books published by Thomas Nelson and Sons. Annual Bulletin of the Société Jersiaise 27 (3): 410-425. Reprints of this article are available.

There is an interesting French web site run by collectors called Collection Nelson, which is trying to identify all the books published by Thomas Nelson and Sons with a focus on the titles published in France. There are many images of books on the site, some of which I have provided.


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

● Images in monochrome are NOT by Blampied.


— 1917 —

Small image of dust jacket   NEL-17.1: The Three Miss Graemes by S. MacNaughtan (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of dust jacket   NEL-17.2: The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of dust jacket   NEL-17.3: The Image in the Sand by E.F. Benson (Dust jacket of novel)


Image not seen   NEL-17.4: The Inviolable Sanctuary by George A. Birmingham (Dust jacket of novel)


Image not seen   NEL-17.5: Clementina by A.E.W. Mason (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of dust jacket   NEL-17.6: Meriel of the Moors by R.E. Vernède (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of dust jacket   NEL-17.7: Young April by Egerton Castle (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of cover   NEL-17.8: The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (Cover of children's book)


Small image of cover   NEL-17.9: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Cover of children's book)


— 1918 —

Small image of dust jacket   NEL-18.1: The Three Fates by F. Marion Crawford (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of dust jacket   NEL-18.2: The Waters of Jordan by Horace A. Vachell (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of dust jacket   NEL-18.3: The Happy Warrior by A.S.M. Hutchinson (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of dust jacket   NEL-18.4: A Flutter in Kings by David Whitelaw (Dust jacket of novel)


— 1919 —

Small image of dust jacket   NEL-19.1: The Triumph of Tim by Horace A. Vachell (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of cover   NEL-19.2: Terry and Starshine by Amy Whipple (Cover and internal illustrations for children's story)


Small image of cover   NEL-19.3: Two Little Scamps and a Puppy by Angela Brazil (Cover and internal illustrations for children's story)


— 1920 —

Small image of cover   NEL-20.1: John's Visit to the Farm by Evelyn Sharp (Cover and internal illustrations for children's story)


Small image of cover   NEL-20.2: At the Farm by Evelyn Hardy (Dust jacket, cover and all internal illustrations for a children's story)


Small image of jacket   NEL-20.3: Olive Roscoe by E. Everett Green (Dust jacket of novel)


Small image of cover   NEL-20.4: Baby's Annual (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-20.5: The Jolly ABC by Blam (Cover and internal illustrations for children's ABC book)



Small image of cover   NEL-20.6: The Chummy Book, 8th Year (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-20.7: The Jolly Book 11th Year (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-20.8: The Children's Treasury, volume 21 (Children's annual)


— 1921 —

Small image of cover   NEL-21.1: The Breezy Farm ABC by Blam (Cover and internal illustrations for children's ABC book)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.2: Hush-a-bye, Baby (Children's book of pictures and verses)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.3: Baby's Book (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.4: Blam's Book of Fun by Blam (Children's selection)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.5: The Chummy Book, Ninth Year, edited by Edwin Chisholm (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.6: The Jolly Book, Twelfth Year, edited by Edwin Chisholm (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.7: The Nursery Book, First Year (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.8: Uncle's Farm (Children's picture book, re-used illustrations)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.9: Wee Folk Stories (Children's selection, re-used content, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.10: Animal Friends (Children's selection, re-used content. cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-21.11: Stories for Tiny Tots (Children's selection, re-used content, cover not by Blampied)


— 1922 —

Small image of cover   NEL-22.1: The Fairy Book (Children's selection of stories and pictures)


Small image of cover   NEL-22.2: The Chummy Book, Tenth Year, edited by Edwin Chisholm (Children's annual), including Cinderella.


Small image of cover   NEL-22.3: The Nursery Book, Second Year (Children's annual, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-22.4: Little Chums (Children's selection of stories and pictures)


Small image of cover   NEL-22.5: Chubby Children (Children's selection of stories and pictures)


— 1923 —

Small image of cover   NEL-23.1: The Nursery Book, Third Year, version 1 (Children's annual)


Small image of cover   NEL-23.2: Two on an Island (and other stories) by Ethel Talbot (Children's stories)


Small image of cover   NEL-23.3: The Little Chums (Children's selection of stories and pictures, Thomas Nelson, New York)


— 1924 —

Small image of cover   NEL-24.1: The Zoo Book (Children's story)


Small image of cover   NEL-24.2: Jolly Times (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-24.3: Rock-a-bye Stories (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-24.4: The Christmas Stocking (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-24.5: Bed-Time Stories (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-24.6: The Children's Treasury, volume 24 (Children's annual, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


— 1925 —

Small image of cover   NEL-25.1: The Nursery Book, Fifth? Year, version 1 (Children's annual, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-25.2: Tiny Tot's First Book/I want to Read (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


— 1926 —

Small image of cover   NEL-26.1: Animals we Know (by Bess M. Young) (Children's story, reused illustrations, jacket not by Blampied)


— 1928 —

Small image of cover   NEL-28.1: Doggies and Pussies (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-28.2: Uncle's Tales (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-28.3: Tell me Another (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


— 1929 —

Small image of cover   NEL-29.1: My Own Book of Coloured Pictures (Reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-29.2: The Children's Book of Coloured Pictures (Reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


— 1930 —

Small image of cover   NEL-30.1: For the Wee Folk (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


— 1931 —

Small image of cover   NEL-31.1: Merry Pictures (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-31.2: Jolly Pictures (Reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


Small image of cover   NEL-31.3: Wide Awake Stories (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


— 1934 —

Small image of cover   NEL-34.1: The Farmyard Book of Coloured Pictures (Reused illustrations)


Small image of cover   NEL-34.2: Nelson's Bumper Book for Children (Children's stories, reused illustrations, cover not by Blampied)


— 1935 —

Small image of cover   NEL-35.1: Visit to a Farm (Reused illustrations)


— 1938 —

Small image of cover   NEL-38.1: The Farmyard Colour Pictures (Reused illustrations)


— 1954 —

Small image of cover   NEL-54.1: A Treasure-Box of Stories (Children's stories, re-used content, cover not by Blampied)