The Life of the Bee, by Maurice Maeterlinck, 1911, London

No other book on bees has enjoyed the popularity of Maeterlinck's The Life of the Bee. Originally published in 1901, it was the work of Maurice Maeterlinck, a distinguished Belgian playwright and poet awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911. In this philosophical work, Maeterlinck, a beekeeper since his youth, adorned his knowledge of bees to draw analogies between their activities and human behavior. The addition of the vivid illustrations by the famed English book illustrator, Edward J. Detmold, in 1911, undoubtedly contributed to the book's great popularity. In 1919, an even wider audience was assured with an edited version for children also using Detmold's illustrations.