(1872-1944) UK artist, illustrator and author, brother of the book illustrator Charles Robinson (1870-1937). From 1897 he produced many finely composed, meticulously inked drawings and decorations for illustrated editions of fantasy by Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), Miguel Cervantes (1547-1616), Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), Edgar Allan Poe, François Rabelais, Walter de la Mare (1973-1956), William Shakespeare and others; this wholly serious work showed the influence of both Japanese woodblock engravings and the Art Nouveau movement. Robinson also illustrated his own whimsically humorous children's fantasies, The Adventures of Uncle Lubin (1902) and Bill the Minder (1912). The drawings for Uncle Lubin's Baron Munchhausen-like exploits (> Rudolf Erich Raspe) in particular display a fondness for cluttered masses of ramshackle paraphernalia.

This foreshadowed the ridiculously overelaborate gadgets and mechanical Inventions, usually held together with knotted string, which became the trademark of Robinson's cartoon Humour – although, as indicated above, his range was in fact rather wider. Even World War One became comic in Robinson's early collections Some "Frightful" War Pictures (graph coll 1915), Hunlikely! (graph coll 1916) and Flypapers (graph coll 1919), with ever-sillier secret Weapons echoing Albert Robida's visions of Future War – such as gigantic vacuum cleaners to suck German troops out of dugouts, while support services include mechanized belts of hot-water-bottles to warm kilted Highlanders' exposed flesh in a characteristic Parody of the assembly-line process. Robinson contributed futuristic cartoons to the 1919 Pears' Annual which imagined the world of 1969, and was the perfect illustrator for The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm (1933) by Norman Hunter, with its benignly comic Mad Scientist. Absurdities: A Book of Collected Drawings (graph coll 1934) is his own large selection of his humorous artwork; Railway Ribaldry (graph coll 1935) focuses on railway Transportation; the posthumous Inventions (graph coll 1973) assembles "gadget" drawings from World War One to the end of the artist's life; his lesser-known Advertising work is showcased in Heath Robinson Advertising (graph coll 1992). For older readers at least, the phrase "a Heath Robinson contraption" is still part of the language; he occupies the same conceptual niche in British popular culture as Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) in the USA. [DRL]

William Heath Robinson

born London: 31 May 1872

died London: 13 September 1944

works (selected)

• The Adventures of Uncle Lubin (London: Grant Richards, 1902) [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Bill the Minder (London: Constable, 1912) [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]

graphic collections

• Some "Frightful" War Pictures (London: Duckworth, 1915) [chap: graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Hunlikely! (London: Duckworth, 1916) [chap: graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Flypapers (London: Duckworth, 1919) [chap: graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Humours of Golf (London: Methuen, 1923) [graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Absurdities: A Book of Collected Drawings (London: Hutchinson, 1934) [graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Railway Ribaldry (London: Great Western Railway, 1935) [chap: graph: published in conjunction with the GWR centenary: pb/W Heath Robinson]
• Let's Laugh: A Book of Humorous Inventions (London: Hutchinson, 1939) [graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
  • Devices (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1977) [graph: vt of the above: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Heath Robinson at War (London: Methuen, 1942) [chap: graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• The Penguin Heath Robinson (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1966) [graph: edited by R Furneaux Jordan: pb/W Heath Robinson]
• Inventions (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1973) [graph: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• The W. Heath Robinson Illustrated Story Book (London: Beaver Books, 1979) [coll: children's stories and fairytales first published 1916-1921 in Playbox Annual: illus/pb/W Heath Robinson]
• Great British Industries and Other Cartoons from The Sketch, 1906-1914 (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1985) [graph: edited by Geoffrey Beare: hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Heath Robinson Advertising (London: Bellew Publishing, 1992) [graph: edited and with introduction by Geoffrey Beare: Advertising: The Cartoon Library: hb/W Heath Robinson]

with K R G Browne

• How To Live in a Flat (London: Hutchinson, 1936) with K R G Browne [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]
• How to Be a Perfect Husband (London: Hutchinson, 1937) with K R G Browne [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]
• How to Make a Garden Grow (London: Hutchinson, 1938) with K R G Browne [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]
• How to Be a Motorist (London: Hutchinson, 1939) with K R G Browne [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]

with H Cecil Hunt

• How to Make the Best of Things (London: Hutchinson, 1940) with H Cecil Hunt [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]
• How to Build a New World (London: Hutchinson, 1941) with H Cecil Hunt [undated but 1941 or 1942: illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]
• How to Run a Communal Home (London: Hutchinson, 1943) with H Cecil Hunt [illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]

nonfiction

• My Line of Life (London: Blackie and Son: 1938) [nonfiction: autobiography: illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]

further reading

• Percy V Bradshaw. The Art of the Illustrator: W Heath Robinson and his work (London: Press Art School, 1918) [portfolio: Art of the Illustrator: na/]
• Langston Day. The Life and Art of W. Heath Robinson (London: Herbert Joseph, 1947) [nonfiction: includes «Uncle Lubin's Holiday», an unfinished sequel to Uncle Lubin above: illus/W Heath Robinson: hb/photographic]
• John Lewis. Heath Robinson: Artist and Comic Genius (London: Constable, 1973) [nonfiction: illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]
• Geoffrey C Beare. The Illustrations of W. Heath Robinson: A Commentary and Bibliography (London: Werner Shaw, 1983) [nonfiction: illus/hb/W Heath Robinson]

links

Previous versions of this entry

• 18/04/2012
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• 21/08/2012