What was the first Narnia book illustrated by Pauline Baynes?

The first Narnia book illustrated by Pauline Baynes was *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe*.

C. S. Lewis’s novel was published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950, and Baynes supplied its interior drawings, colored frontispiece, and cover design. Her work helped establish the visual identity of Narnia from the beginning, including memorable depictions of Aslan, the White Witch, the wardrobe, and the four Pevensie children.

Baynes was selected partly because Lewis admired her earlier illustrations for J. R. R. Tolkien’s *Farmer Giles of Ham*. After illustrating the first Narnia book, she went on to illustrate all six sequels: *Prince Caspian*, *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*, *The Silver Chair*, *The Horse and His Boy*, *The Magician’s Nephew*, and *The Last Battle*.

Readers sometimes confuse “first illustrated” with the series’ internal chronology. *The Magician’s Nephew* comes first in Narnia’s fictional history, but it was published later, in 1955. *The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe* was both the first published volume and Baynes’s first Narnia commission.