de Grummond Collection

McCain Library and Archives
University Libraries
University of Southern Mississippi



EDWARD ARDIZZONE PAPERS

Collection Number
Collection Dates
Collection Volume
DG0037
1952-1983
.30 cu.ft. (1 box)

Biographical Sketch | Scope & Content | Related Collections | Series & Subseries | Box Inventory

Provenance

Material received from Ardizzone in March 1966 and April 1970.

Restrictions

Noncirculating; available for research.

Copyright

The collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). Reproductions can be made only if they are to be used for "private study, scholarship, or research." It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership, and obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials, other than that noted above.


Biographical Sketch

Edward Ardizzone was born October 16, 1900 in Haiphong, French Indochina (now Vietnam). His father served in the Far East with the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company. His mother moved the children to England when Ardizzone was five years old, where he remained for the rest of his life. As a child, he and his cousin Arthur explored the docks together and were given free run by the sailors. These experiences were the basis for the "Tim" books. Apart from these happy experiences, much of his childhood was lonely. His mother took long trips back to the Far East to be with his father, and Ardizzone attended boarding school where he had trouble fitting in. He took refuge in painting and drawing and began to excel.

While working as a statistical clerk from 1919 to 1926, at his mother's urging he also spent three evenings a week in art classes at Westminster School of Art. In 1926 after his father gave him a sum of money, he left his job and devoted all his time to art. In 1928 he married Catherine Anderson and received his first commission as an artist: forty drawings for Johnny Walker, the whisky distillery. Although he earned a good fee, he learned he was not destined to be an advertising artist. In 1930 Ardizzone's first show at Bloomsbury Galleries received glowing reviews. As a result, he won his first contract as an illustrator of Sheridan Lefanu's book, In a Glass Darkly (1929). Ardizzone has said he did his best work on this title. Later he wrote and illustrated the story of Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain for his own children; Oxford University Press published it in 1935 with great success. This book led to several more in the popular "Tim" series. Ardizzone developed his writing style from telling stories to his children and later his grandchildren. He believed an illustrator should not draw down to children but draw up to please oneself. In this way, he treated a small illustration in the same way as a piece for an exhibition.

Ardizzone spent World War II as an official war artist, which resulted in the book, Baggage to the Enemy (1941). He taught book illustration at Camberwell (1948-1952) and was visiting tutor in etching and lithography at Royal College of Art, London (1953-1960). During the course of his fifty-year career, Ardizzone wrote and illustrated about twenty books for children and edited and illustrated two volumes of classic fairy tales. He also wrote five books for adults and illustrated more than 150 books for other authors, including many of the classics by Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dylan Thomas and others. One of his best known paintings, Magic Carpet, was chosen by UNICEF for a collection of international Christmas cards. Ardizzone's work was exhibited at many individual and group shows, including Leger Gallery (1931-1936), Victoria and Albert Museum (1973), Illustrator's Art (1982), Scottish Arts Council Gallery in Edinburgh (1979), Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours (1954), and Royal Academy Summer Exhibition from 1964. He was an associate member of the Royal Academy, an honorary associate of the Royal College of Art, and a fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists. Ardizzone won the first Kate Greenaway Medal in 1956 for Tim All Alone and was named Commander, Order of British Empire in 1971.

He died at his home in 1979.

Sources:

Scope and Content

The collection contains correspondence, with an original illustration, from Ardizzone to the de Grummond Collection and correspondence from the Macmillan Company to Ardizzone. Also included are original materials for three titles and several illustrated Christmas cards. The collection is arranged with the correspondence first, then the titles in alphabetical order, followed by the illustrated cards.

A Likely Place (1967), written by Paula Fox and illustrated by Edward Ardizzone, is the story of a boy and an old man, each suffering from too much tender loving care. For this title the collection holds eighteen original pen and ink drawings, all but one of which was published; however, this is an incomplete set of the book's illustrations as explained in the correspondence from an agent at Macmillan. Pictures on the Pavement (1955), written by G. W. Stonier and illustrated by Edward Ardizzone, is a social and cultural look at London. For this title the collections contains a bound, uncorrected proof in which Ardizzone also has drawn rough pencil sketches opposite most of the printed drawings at the beginning of each chapter. For The Warden (1952), which is not a children's book, the papers include two glossy photographs of the illustration titled "Mr. Harding with the Bishop." Also included in the collection are seven illustrated Christmas cards (1976, 1981, 1983, and four undated). Four of the cards feature a reproduction of a published Ardizzone illustration from Boyhoods of the Great Composers (1960), Ardizzone's Kilvert (1976), Letters From My Windmill (1978), and Ardizzone's English Fairy Tales: Twelve Classic Tales (1980).


Related Collection

The Bernard Meeks Papers (DG0687) contain twenty-one letters from Ardizzone to Meeks dating from 1945 to 1952, seven of which are illustrated.




Series and Subseries

 

A. Correspondence (1966-1967)

B. Books (1952-1967)

C. Illustrated Christmas Cards (1976-1983 and undated)

 


Box Inventory



    Box/Folder

A. Correspondence


     1/1       To the de Grummond Collection, 17 February 1966, with
               original pen and ink illustration on letter, 1 item.

               From The Macmillan Co. to Ardizzone, 10 May 1967, 1 item.


B. Books

A LIKELY PLACE by Paula Fox, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (New York:
     Macmillan, 1967).

     1/2       Illustrations, pen and ink, chapter 1, 5 items:
               title page
                    p. 1 - Chapter heading
                    p. 5 - "A glass case full of swords"
                    p. 8 - "Lewis, you should be in class"
                    p. 15 - "Could I do a report on something else?"

     1/3       Illustrations, pen and ink, chapter 2, 6 items:
                    p. 16 - Chapter heading
                    p. 18 - [caption unreadable]
                    p. 22 - "Miss Fitchlow lying between two chairs"
                    p. 25 - [caption unreadable]
                    p. 28 - "Naturally, because it's unreasonable,         
                           English"  
                    p. 33 - "`Good for the brains,' she said"

     1/4       Illustrations, pen and ink, chapter 3, 7 items:
               p. 34 - Chapter heading
               p. 37 - "`My ducks,' she cried as they walked by"
               p. 40 - "`Occupied,' shouted a voice"
               p. 43 - "Lewis holds up his pencil to show he was
                       he was ready"
               p. 45 - "Mr. Madruga signs his name"
               p. 47 - "`He had an idee fixe', said Miss Fitchlow"
                       Unused - "What's your hurry kid"

     1/5       Illustrations, pen and ink, chapter 4, 3 items:
               p.52 - "Myra jumped up and licked Lewis'chin"  
               p. 55 - "Mr. Madruga had opened his umbrella"
               End page - "`I'll get bigger,' said Lewis"


     PICTURES ON THE PAVEMENT by G. W. Stonier, illustrated by Edward
     Ardizzone (London: M. Joseph, 1955).

     1/6       Proof, bound, with rough pencil sketches.
               

     THE WARDEN by Anthony Trollope, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (London:
     Oxford University Press, 1952).

     1/7       Photographs of drawing titled "Mr. Harding with the Bishop,"
               2 items.


C. llustrated Christmas Cards (1976-1983 and undated


     1/8       "The infant Mozart at the Clavichord" from Boyhoods of the
               Great Composers,  by Catherine Gough; illustrated by
               Edward Ardizzone (London: Oxford University Press, 1960),
               Christmas 1976.

               From Ardizzone's Kilvert by Robert Francis Kilvert,
               edited by William Plomer, abridged for children by Elizabeth
               Divine; illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (London: Cape,
               1976), undated.

               From Letters From My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet;
               illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (New York: Penguin, 1978),
               undated.

               "The Three Bears" from Ardizzone's English Fairy Tales: 
               Twelve Classic Tales selected and illustrated by Edward
               Ardizzone (London: Deutsch, 1980), undated.

               Unidentified 1981, 1983, and undated, 3 items.


Processed: March 1991
Revised: February 12, 1996; September 2014

Biographical Sketch| Scope & Content| Related Collections| Series & Subseries| Box Inventory
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The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection

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118 College Drive, #5148
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
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