Arthur Rackham, one of the best-known English book illustrators of the early twentieth century, died at Limpsfield, Surrey, on 6 September 1939. He was 71.

Born in London in 1867, Rackham worked as an illustrator before becoming closely associated with the illustrated gift books of the period, sometimes called the Golden Age of British book illustration. His drawings combined detailed pen-and-ink lines with watercolour, producing figures and settings that could be comic, strange or unsettling.

His work appeared in editions of Rip Van Winkle, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Aesop’s Fables and the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Improvements in colour printing allowed publishers to reproduce his watercolours more accurately. They helped make illustrated editions an important part of his career.

Rackham continued working into the 1930s. His death came three days after Britain declared war on Germany.