WOOD ENGRAVINGS AS INSPIRATION

In addition to contributing to weekly newspapers, Homer submitted work to monthly publications for which he illustrated short stories, poetry, and serial novels. On occasion, his drawings inspired new texts. Homer apparently sent drawings for five wood engravings to the editors of Our Young Folks, a magazine for children, just before he traveled to France in November 1866. The magazine’s editors then wrote poems to fit four of the drawings and commissioned another poet to provide verse for The Bird-Catchers. Each of the pictures, with its accompanying poem, was published in the magazine in 1867 or 1868.