Illustrator

C. Walter Hodges

C. Walter Hodges (1909 to 2004) was an English illustrator and Shakespeare theatre historian who illustrated Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth.

Books illustrated: 5
Editions tracked: 5
First editions: 5
Earliest: 1946

Search books illustrated by C. Walter Hodges

C. Walter Hodges illustrated 5 books we track in 5 editions, from 1946 to 1956, 5 of them first editions. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.

About C. Walter Hodges

C. Walter Hodges (Cyril Walter Hodges, 18 March 1909 to 26 November 2004) was an English illustrator, author and theatre historian, best known to collectors for illustrating Rosemary Sutcliff's early historical novels, including The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), and Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse (1946).

Born in Beckenham, Kent, he was educated at Dulwich College and Goldsmiths' College of Art, where E. J. Sullivan taught him. He designed costumes and scenery for the Everyman Theatre from 1928, and from 1931 drew for the Radio Times for about forty years. His first book, Columbus Sails (1939), was written and illustrated during a year in New York. He served as a captain in the British Army in the Second World War, including the Normandy invasion. By the Sutcliff site's count he illustrated more than a hundred books, by authors including Sutcliff, Goudge, Ian Serraillier, William Mayne and E. Nesbit.

Hodges became an authority on the Globe and other Elizabethan playhouses. Shakespeare's Theatre (Oxford University Press, 1964) won the Kate Greenaway Medal, and his novel The Namesake (1964) was commended for the Carnegie Medal. He designed for the Mermaid Theatre in the 1950s, advised on a proposed Globe reconstruction at Wayne State University, and in 1986 sold nearly 900 theatre drawings to the Folger Shakespeare Library. He died in Moretonhampstead, Devon.

For collectors

First editions of Sutcliff's The Queen Elizabeth Story (1950), The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) and The Shield Ring carry his illustrations. Sutcliff's Simon (1953) is sometimes credited to him, but its first edition was illustrated by Richard Kennedy.