H. A. Rey’s wordless narrative, Zebrology, is deceptive. It is sophisticated adult reading in the guise of a children’s fable. It’s a satirical jab at the Nazi Race Laws of the 1930s. For a discussion of this, see H. A. Rey – Satirist or Subversive?
the outcome of a black stallion breeding with a white mare,
resulting in the striped zebras grazing as shown here.
This 8-panel wordless novel purports to explain how Zebras resulted from a romance between a white mare and a black stallion– Warning – this may not be scientifically accurate.
The full 8 panels can be seen at the bottom of this page, but in black and white from a later German publication, not in their original colour.
At least the following publishers published Zebrology:
- Chatto & Windus did at least 4 printings starting in 1937; using colour images
- The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd – Chatto & Windus archives (Reading, UK) received press clippings from Macmillan in 1938 featuring reviews in Canadian newspapers of Zebrology, stating Macmillan published the book sold for 35 cents. When contacted, the Macmillan archives (at McMaster University) did not have any records of print runs or of the reviews.
- Any information about the Macmillan publication would be appreciated with a credit line to the contributor.
- The Courier Magazine printed the story in 1938 and then reprinted it in 1948 as part of a 10th Anniversary edition.
- Das Blatt der Hausfrau printed the story in 1940 but used black and white images and a German title.
Chatto & Windus
- Title: Zebrology
- Author: H. A. Rey
- Illustrator: Hans Augusto Reyersbach aka H. A. Rey
- Date of publication: 1937
- ISBN: not applicable except for a 1979 anomaly as below
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus
- Place of publication: London
- Printer: W. S. Cowell, Ltd: Ipswich
- Copyright: Chatto & Windus
- Dust jacket: No
- slipcase: none
- Binding: red cord; three hole punched
- Boards: thin card
- Language: English titles, etc
- Unpaginated
- Printed: verso and recto
- Edition: Trade only
- Printed: Rey’s watercolours were reproduced in colour using a half-tone process
- Description: published in 8 panels
- Image sizes: All images, regardless of the booklet’s dimension, used Cowell’s plates; so they were all printed the same size.
- French fold: impressions #1, 3, and 4 (and presumably #2) were printed French fold as illustrated below.
are printed in French fold as in this example.
1937 – 1st printing
- October 1937; 3200 copies were ordered and delivered
- booklet size: 5 1/2 x 7 3/8″ (14 x 18.8 cm)
H. A. Rey’s 1937 wordless story, Zebrology.
wordless novel, Zebrology. This image appears to have been
used on all printings of the booklet by Chatto & Windus.
wordless novel, Zebrology. There is no indication of publication date.
shows a white mare grazing and a black stallion in the background.
was printed in French fold so that images appear recto
and verso, as with images 6 and 7, as shown here.
Zebrology showing Rey’s logo and
the date he created the image,1936.
1937 – 2nd Impression
- December 1937, 2000 copies were ordered and delivered
- presumably also 5 1/2 x 7 3/8”
- image needed. If you have a copy of the 2nd impression, please send me an image of the back cover and I will give you a photo credit.
1938 – 3rd impression
- New Enlarged Edition (Chatto & Windus wording); while the images were the same size as the 1st impression, the booklet was enlarged to 7 x 9″ (17.7 x 22.8 cm),
- May 1938; 5,250 copies were ordered and were delivered in September and October of 1938.
3rd Impression of H. A. Rey’s wordless novel,
Zebrology showing the back covers.
3rd Impression of H. A. Rey’s wordless novel,
Zebrology showing the front covers.
While the dimensions of the booklet for the 3rd impression were significantly larger than the 1st, the images were not enlarged, i.e., they used the same plates to produce the 3rd impression as the 1st.
NOTE: the 3rd impression was also printed French fold so that the images appeared recto and verso.
impression of the wordless novel, Zebrology.
impression of his wordless novel, Zebrology.
This envelope references both Zebrology and Flying Fishes. It can not be said with certainty that all envelopes accompanying this 3rd impression referenced both titles.
1953 – 4th Impression
- June 1953: 10,000 copies of the Fourth Impression were ordered and were printed in September 1953,
- as per p.355 of the C&W records archived in Reading, England, booklets were ordered at 4″ x 9″ however a copy examined measures 7″ x 9″ (17.7 x 22.8 cm) ie the same size as the 3rd impression.
- 7,141 bound copies were delivered in 1953, 600 copies were delivered in 1964/65, and 1,542 copies were delivered in 1979.
- Note: C&W library records indicate that a copy of Zebrology (4th impression) was published in 1979 with ISBN13: 9780701110758. A search on Amazon for this ISBN number brings up a listing with a publication date of Dec 31, 1979 (no copies are available online). Since all copies were printed in 1953, the 1979 date does not seem relevant and may have more to do with legal or bureaucratic matters.
- Like the prior impressions, the 4th impression was printed French fold.
wordless novel, Zebrology. There is no indication of a publication
date but company records show 1953. 7 x 9 inches
Envelopes
Chatto & Windus used various envelopes over time.
cover. This example accompanied Zebrology 3rd impression.
Chatto & Windus records, p. 355, show a print order for 10,100 (9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches) envelopes in 1953. Some are plain, and some have a price.
wordless novel Zebrology, overprinted in red and priced at 2/0 Net.
Courier Magazine Ltd.
W. S. Cowell, but as far as I can ascertain, there is no relationship
between C&W and Courier except that the Courier print job
shows up on C&W records.
Based on the advertisements, Courier appears to have catered to an upper-middle-class and upper-class demographic. It attempts to strike a “smart” tone with several satirical articles along with coverage of the arts, fashion, and current events. The issues (at least in the late 1930s) place emphasis on Germany’s actions.
Courier 1938 Autumn edition
- Publisher: The Courier Magazine Ltd.
- Place of publication: London
- Printer: this issue appears to have used 4 printers for different portions of the publication but the Zebrology portion was printed by W. S. Cowell Ltd (Cowell had the negatives used for the Chatto & Windus publications)
- Dimensions: 9 3/4 x 7 1/2″ (not including the comb binding)
- Binding: plastic comb
- Unpaginated for the Zebrology portion printed by Cowell but it occupies pp 155 – 158
- Printed: verso and recto on four pages
- Edition: Trade only,
- Images are the same size as those in the Chatto & Windus publications
containing H. A. Rey’s wordless story, Zebrology.
with H. A. Rey’s wordless story, Zebrology,
is indexed at pp. 155 – 158.
For H. A. Rey’s 1938 wordless publication, Zebrology,
it uses the same palm tree grouping at the top but the
bottom portion differs and uses the first image from the story.
Courier January 1948 – Tenth Anniversary edition
- Publisher: Norman Kark (Kark was the Managing Director at the time The Courier published the 1938 issue)
- Place of publication: London
- Printer: Merritt and Hatcher Ltd. (not W. S. Cowell Ltd used earlier)
- Dimensions: 7 x 7 1/2″
- Images are smaller than those in the earlier publications. Also, they are only done in black line with blue shading and not the full colour used in the earlier publications.
- Binding: perfect binding
- Unpaginated for the Zebrology portion but it occupies pp 94 – 96
- Printed: verso and recto on three pages
- Only six of the eight original images were used to tell the story for the 1948 edition.
Courier vs the 1948 Anniversary edition.
magazine is made up of a montage of some of
the covers used in the prior ten years.
Courier magazine showing H. A. Rey’s
wordless novel, Zebrology, at p. 94.
wordless novel, Zebrology, in the 1948 Anniversary edition
of Courier magazine. This is the 6th and last image.
Das Blatt der Hausfrau 1940 (The Housewife’s Paper)
Das Blatt der Hausfrau was a German twice-monthly magazine with entertainment, stories, and household management advice. At least in the late 1930s, it only occasionally had cartoons. H. A. Rey is the only artist who appeared in multiple (3) editions during this time.
Title: Geburt des Zebras (Birth of the Zebra)
Author: H. A. Rey
Illustrator: H. A. Rey
Date of publication: 1940 no. 22: p. 656; July
Publisher: Deutscher Verlag
Place of publication: Berlin
Copyright: Chatto & Windus
Language: German titles, etc
Paper: Nazis were expanding (but not at war yet), and supplies may have been scarce. This publication was on newsprint, and the images were reproduced in black and white half-tone.
Description: below is a detail from p. 656 showing all 8 panels of the story.
8 panels of H. A. Rey’s wordless story, Zebrology.
The original images were done in watercolours.
A comment was made suggesting this was also reprinted in another German magazine. Any information in this regard would be appreciated. wn@wordlessnovels.com
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