Tales of Folk and Fairies

Katharine Pyle (November 23, 1863 – February 19, 1938) was an American artist, poet, and children's author. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, the youngest offspring of William Pyle and Margaret (Painter), she was the sister of author and artist Howard Pyle. She was educated at the Women's Industrial School and the Drexel Institute, and then studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women and the New York Art Students' League. She lived in Wilmington her whole life, except for a four-year period in New York in the 1890s. Her art was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. She found work as an illustrator no later than 1895, but her first major success occurred in 1898 with The Counterpane Fairy. Over the course of her career she wrote over 30 books and illustrated the works of others. Her works appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal and Harper's Bazaar.


“There was once a lad, and what his real name was nobody remembered, unless it was the mother who bore him; but what every one called him was Ashipattle. They called him that because he sat among the ashes to warm his toes. He had six older brothers, and they did not think much of him. All the tasks they scorned to do themselves they put upon Ashipattle. He gathered the sticks for the fire, he swept the floor, he cleaned the byre, he ran the errands, and all he got for his pains were kicks and cuffs and mocking words. Still he was a merry fellow, and as far as words went he gave his brothers as good as they sent.”