The Cubies’ ABC – Mary and Earl Lyall
The Cubies’ ABC by Mary and Earl Lyall / ISBN 9781429098106 / 72-page hardback, about 9.25 x 7.5 inches, from Applewood Books.
I once featured this 1913 book on 50 Watts.
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Cleverly disguised as a children’s book, The Cubies’ ABC is a satirical take on Cubism and the literature and art of the day. The Cubies’ ABC was “versed” by Mary Chase Mills Lyall (1879-1963) and “pictured” by Earl Harvey Lyall (1877-1932). Not much is known about the authors. This was their only book. Like any normal ABC book, each letter of the alphabet is accompanied by a verse and a drawing. In the letter “A” the Cubies are introduced by their author: They’re the joy of the mad, the despair of the sane, (With their emerald hair and eyes made of rubies.) ―A is for Art in the Cubies’ domain. This unusual book was published in the fall of 1913 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in New York, six months after the International Exhibition of Modern Art, more commonly known as the Armory Show, held earlier in late winter at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York. The Armory Show, the first-ever large-scale exhibition of modern art in America, was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, for whom this book was dedicated by its wickedly clever wife-and-husband creators.
