Whimsical map covering England, Wales and part of Scotland focusing on the locations relevant to the literary heritage of the country.

This map abounds with small vignettes of classic writers, playwrights and poets of the past such as Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. Special highlights are made of their places of residence or locations which are important in their novels or lives such as Steventon in Hampshire for Austen and Stratford-upon-Avon for Shakespeare. The borders are illustrated with images of the progress of English civilization as recorded in various important historical works such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Pilgrim's Progress, Le Morte d'Arthur and later works in the Enlightenment such as English Geography. The sequence begins with an image of Stonehenge on the upper right corner and ends with an image of a Zeppelin in the upper left corner. The upper central border shows a sequence of book storage locations, from a scroll library on the left through to a modern library on the right.

Although it was published by Rand McNally, the this map was drawn by Ella Wall van Leer, an artist and architect who was also a women's rights activist and a great promoter of women in the engineering industry. One of her greatest achievements was to lobby for many years to convince the Georgia Institute of Technology, where her husband was President, to accept female students; this was finally achieved, mainly due to her efforts, in 1952. Less is known about the compiler of the chart, Ethel Earle Wylie, although the two did work together to compile and draw a companion piece to this map, "A Pictorial Chart of American Literature" approximately three years after this one. Printed colour. Laid down on contemporary linen. SL [GB1999