Marcia Lane Foster

Some of my favourite pony book dustjackets are by an illustrator who did very few pony books in her prolific career. This I think is a shame. Marcia Lane Foster illustrated many children's books, working on Pamela Brown’s later works, and Viola Bayley’s lengthy Adventure series, but her work in the pony book genre was unfortunately small: she seemed to be an illustrator who could turn her hand to most subjects, so presumably was much in demand.


I think she had a real gift for design: I love the way she includes the spine of the book in her jacket designs, particularly for Christine Pullein-Thompson’s We Hunted Hounds, where the hounds are seen galloping along the spine, with the rest of the field on the front.





I love the way the ponies are streaming down the spine of the dustjacket in this next example, and then when you turn to the front you get a continuation. Lovely. I also like her Exmoors, which really look like the breed they're supposed to be, rather than a scaled down Thoroughbred (Moorland Mousie anyone?). Here they are, on Mary de la Mahotiére’s Round-up On Exmoor.


She wrote a few books: early readers for Humphrey Milord and the Oxford University Press, all published in the 1920s. Her Let’s Do It ((1938) is a collection of her sketches, and includes a section on the Pony Club. I haven't yet got hold of a copy, but hope to manage it soon.


In the meantime, here's a link to my site for a couple more photos, and as full a bibliography of everything she illustrated as I've been able to find.