"Cute Cats and Psychedelia: The Tragic Life of Louis Wain," Illustration Chronicles, 175 Years, 175 Stories, Online.

Louis Wain was one of the most popular commercial illustrators in the history of England. Born in 1860, his anthropomorphic portrayals of cats captured the imagination of the Edwardian era and his work helped to elevate the profile and popularity of our feline friends to unprecedented heights. Before Wain, cats in England were often thought of with contempt but his work humanized them and helped to show them as something to be liked, admired and even loved.

His illustrations were so popular that throughout the beginning of the twentieth-century most homes had at least one of his famous cat annuals and m...