Comprising 80 original pen, ink and wash drawings prepared as a contest submission to illustrate Anatole France's Penguin Island. Tipped to larger sheets and interleaved with an enlarged facsimile printing of France's Penguin Island as published by the Limited Editions Club in 1947 with illustrations by Malcolm Cameron. With original prospectus for the Limited Editions Club's "Competition in Book Illustration" tipped in.  Modern calf gilt; slipcase. Retaining original portfolio with cover label. 

Richard Taylor, a Canadian cartoonist, was best known for his cartoons produced for publication in The New Yorker and Playboy Magazine. Historian John Bell called Taylor "one of the greatest New Yorker cartoonists" (Invaders from the North, 2006).  He prepared these drawings in response to a Limited Editions Club contest in 1932-1933 that solicited sets of illustrations to accompany one of thirty selected titles for a $2,500 prize.  Four groups of artists were specifically targeted: "Those artists who feel that they have original or experimental ideas concerning the proper illustration of books... Those artists who want to devote their talents to the illustration of books... Those artists who have already illustrated books, but feel they can do better... [and] those artists who have achieved success in other fields" (Prospectus). 

Taylor's illustrations are highly accomplished, but are of a naughty nature, including nudity, sex, and violence, and his work was never accepted.  [With:] A copy of the 1947 Limited Editions Club edition of Penguin Island in the original binding and slipcase (some soiling and wear).