This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
In his book High Tide, Brad Johannsen really brings Herman Hesse and Lao Tzu’s writing to life with colorful and psychedelic illustrations. The book contains the story ‘Piktor’s Metamorphasis,” a spiritual tale telling of loneliness after Piktor has been tricked by a serpent and wished to be turned into a tree. Luckily, in the end a young girl comes and joins him in tree form and he is able to truly understand the importance of creation and how it is always continuing.
The book also includes an adapted fable by Lao Tzu about the Frog King and his bottom frogs. The bottom frogs are told that a skylark that comes and sings of a beautiful other place is speaking of a world that they will go to after they die if they do the king’s bidding. A philosopher frog speaks up and claims that maybe the skylark is really speaking of a place that exists now, but in the end they capture the skylark and put him in a museum.
Although the stories give interesting philosophical ideas, the truly excellent part of the book is the illustrations. Drawn by Brad Johannsen in bright neon colors and full of fantastic creatures, they draw the reader through the stories and create a visual trip.
High tide / by Brad Johannsen with Bob Brockway and Karen Ghen; with Piktor’s metamorphosis by Herman Hesse; stories by Hermann Hesse and Lao Tzu. New York : Crown Publishers, [1972] is in Widener Library’s collection.
Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.