Arthur Rackham (1867 – 1939) was an English book illustrator. He is widely regarded as one of the leading illustrators from the ’Golden Age’ of British book illustration which roughly encompassed the years from 1890 until the end of the First World War. During that period, there was a strong market for high quality illustrated books which typically were given as Christmas gifts. Rackham’s work is often described as a fusion of a northern European ’Nordic’ style strongly influenced by the Japanese woodblock tradition of the early 19th century.