Beschreibung:

Papers of Oliver Simon of the Curwen Press, comprising autograph letters etc. by: (i) Ardizzone (Edward) Five autograph letters signed, describing, inter alia, an episode serving as war artist with the 8th Army in September 1943, which he illustrates with a pen-and-ink sketch ("...Perhaps the best was a picnic lunch I ate with two companions in an orchard of young olive and almond trees just north of Lentini. It was a jolly and carefree affair. To drink we had a bottle each of Moët and Chandon Brut, date unspecified and stamped 'Reserved for the German Army'. A wine we had acquired a few days earlier. To eat a local goats milk cheese, fresh figs, grapes and a sweet melon. A minor battle to which we paid little attention, was in progress to our right. But what we did not know and only learnt to our horror some hours later, was that we had been making merry bang in the middle of 200 hidden enemy para shoot troops. Another and more epic meal was when Major Geoffrey Keating and myself dictated the terms of surrender to the Military Commander of Taormina, an Alpini Colonel, over an enormous dish of pasta and bottles of champagne..."), the latter scene also sketched in outline; another illustrated letter thanking him for a gift of wine ("...It's Catherine's birthday so we have opened a bottle of the Moselle. Now half empty, it stands under a bunch of daffodils. The windows onto the balcony are open, the sun comes in and Catherine & I drink to you in great contentment..."), 1939-1952 (ii) Bawden (Edward) Autograph letter signed, written stationed with the army, an as official war artist, at Aldeburgh, teasing Oliver for his taste for drab picture postcards ("...Do you come home with your bags packed with buckshee stationary, or are these the only kind you can get through the customs...") and reposting in kind with a drawing of his Cairo hotel ("...You see me leaving the hotel followed by five dragomen. The pimp who is clutching my sleeve is saying 'O sar, nothing doing!' His voice is filled with pathos. You will observe that I am taking no notice of him. With Major Cheeseman I have finished an exploration of the source of the Blue Nile..."), 1943 (iii) Blunden (Edmund) Three autograph letters signed, about Signature ("...This letter by the way is written with a shattered pen and my manuscript may be better worth considering for the possibility of a plain facsimile..."), with a typescript of his poem celebrating the last number of the magazine, 1953 (iv) Curwen (Harold) Autograph letter signed, discussing the problems with regard to the printing chapels of Simon joining his press full time [c.1921] (v) Dunbar (Evelyn) Illustrated autograph letter signed, inviting Oliver to a dance; the letter festooned with mice at play ("...I thought the absurd little mice might amuse you..."), 1933 (vi) Freedman (Barnett) Six autograph sketches for a colophon or bookplate, showing a snake coiled on two open books (two on tracing paper, one in pencil and three in ink, the last with added body-colour) with accompanying note (vii) Gill (Eric) Autograph letter signed, with a card and letter signed, thanking him for The Woodcut Annual ("...I am glad to have this & to see the work of Eric G...") and confessing himself delighted "to know that you like the 'Perpetua'", 1930-31 (viii) Johnson (John) Twelve typed letters signed, written in his capacity as Printer to the University of Oxford, discussing the progress of collecting ephemera for his monumental Sanctuary of Printing ("...Now you and Michael Sadleir and Holbrook Jackson have sufficiently filled my gap. Naturally I do not seek to be complete. I seek only to be representative. For I founded the collection for no other purpose than to be educational both in Social and Typographical history. Therefore I bless you. I am still worrying the 17th century. And the results to me become more and more thrilling as I am sure they are becoming more and more devastatingly dull to anyone but me... I am much more i