The Enid Blyton Society

I'm trying to find out about Eileen Soper. All i can find on the web is bookshops advertising famous five books which have named her as tthe illustrater!
Does anyone know where I can get some information about her drawings, life, and her career away fron enid blyton. any Help appreciated!

but you might try to google some of the below. Perhaps someone should write a biography ????



Eileen Alice Soper (1905-1990) was born in Enfield but lived the great majority of her life at Harner Green near Welwyn in Hertfordshire. The daughter of illustrator George Soper, she was only fifteen when her work was first accepted by the Royal Academy. She specialised primarily in animals and children, and was a founder member of the Society of Wildlife Artists. Soper was elected to the Royal Society of Miniature Painters in 1972.

I've tried google but i got the same as you really.Its very dissapointing that so little is known about her
Someone should write a biography (maybe as a society publication?) but where would they get the information?
Its really annoying me when I type in 'Eileen Soper' on the web and I get powells and other book shops selling Famous Five!

here's some more. this is becomming more interesting ....


Eileen Soper is quite an interesting person. She was the daughter of George Soper, a well-known artist whose speciality was horses. With his encouragement she exhibited at age 15. Her specialities were wild animals (esp. badgers) and children. Apparently when she saw children playing she used to stop and ask if she could draw them, and they used to pose for her. Imagine the verbal abuse and volleys of stones an artist would get today if she attempted to draw children at play today.
George Soper was obsessive about germs, and, as they grew older Eileen and her sister became obsessed with the idea that the Dread Disease (i.e. cancer) could be caught from coughs and sneezes. They became recluses. Servants and gardeners who retired or died were not replaced in case the newcomers imported the Dread Disease, and their 4-acre garden became a wild, overgrown nature reserve. Provisions were ordered by telephone and delivered to the garden gate so that they did not have to meet shop-keepers. Both sisters lived to be over 90 and died within a few months of each other.

Eileen Soper, Daughter of George Soper, produced about 180 different etchings, some of which she first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1921 making her at 15, the youngest ever exhibitor, two of her etchings were seen and bought by Queen Mary. She painted watercolours and illustrated many books including "The Famous five" series by Enid Blyton.

Eileen's Etchings of a particular group of children have enchanted not only the experts but have appealed to most people fortunate enough to see them. They were all produced in the twenties and even today, some 80 years later have not lost any of that original appeal.

The same children appear over and over again, taking part in all of the activities that one would expect of a child. Eileen's secret is in being able to put so much life into her subjects that they almost bounce off the paper.

Further reading
"The Catalogue Raisonne of Etchings of George and Eileen Soper"
"The art of George and Eileen Soper". Essential reading showing pictures and details of 166 of Eileen's etchings.
Both published by Chris Beetles Ltd.
Wildings Duff Hart Davis Witherby, London 1991 (now out of print, but available second-hand

Signatures

Eileen Soper used two different signatures on her etchings. She only used the first E.A. Soper up to the age of 15 and this signature is very rare. It can often be seen on the etching "The first recitation" and " The three wees".
The other is - Eileen A. Soper this was used for all the rest of her etchings and varied considerably in style over the years, although the form never really alters. There are some etchings in circulation without signatures, these are mostly from a batch of etchings recovered from her home "The Wildings" after her death in 1990. They were bequeathed to "The Artists General Benevolent Institution" in Piccadilly and have been sold on their behalf over the last few years. All of the signatures on her etchings are in pencil.

Wow! You have gotten so much information for me! I am going to look into the two books you've listed second hand. Where did you get all that info? I heard about eileen being 'interested' in germs and that but that was about it!
Thanks for getting all that for me, and so quickly!

in the Amazon search window type eileen soper

then there's a little search window, select Alphabetical A-Z

until you get to the zillions of FIVE books. then select Alphabetical Z-A and work backwards

for stuff like this Amazon (or ABE Books) is a much cheaper option than eBay

i have to content myself with my set of Nature Plates

Haven't tried amazon, i'll give it a try.

Hi Neasa - the book that you need is the last of those mentioned by Oldbourney - Wildings by Duff Hart-Davis. This will tell you all you could ever want to know about her!

I have just checked it out on http://www.abebooks.com and there were 25 copies available at various different prices.

Best wishes
Tony

Thanks Tony and oldBourney, for both of your help! 'Wildings' is on its way to me by use of abebooks.com! Truely grateful and yer responses are much appreciated!

If you are still interested following titles are by Eileen Soper most available via abe.com

No Badgers in my Wood
Muntjac
Wild Favours
Wild Encounters
Dormouse awake (rare)

Merged with an older thread.

Did Eileen Soper ever actually visit Corfe castle please?
Tony? Viv? Thanks, Auntie F.

I'm afraid I'm not an expert, Aunt Fanny. I guess only Tony or Viv can answer your queston or perhaps any other member.

I've noticed that Eileen Soper did a lot of art work for an author called Elizabeth Gould in the 1950s. I can't find anything out about this author - does anyone out there know of her?

Thanks

Viv

BBC East made an Inside Out programme about Eileen Soper which was broadcast on 25 October 2007.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/content/ ... ture.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does anyone happen to have a recording of this programme?

Best wishes

Viv

After enlarging Eileen Soper illustration that appears on the front cover of my book, The Famous Five:A Personal Anecdotage (http://www.bbotw.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), did I notice that Eileen Soper had inscribed her signature at the bottom right side of the illustration. I wasn't aware that fine artists did that. Maybe in Michelangelo's time, they never did it...I don't know.

Stephen isabirye