PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

July 30, 1928

Mr. Frank C. Pape
59 St. John's Road
Tunbridge Wells, England

Dear Mr. Pape:

We acknowledge with thanks your very kind letter and
list of July 9th.

We are preparing, almost immediately, a list to be
entitled NOTES TOWARD A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS ILLUSTRATED
BY FRANK C. PAPE. We are issuing this with the view of
sending it out to collectors, bibliographers, and other
interested parties, so that we can get more exact data
towards a complete bibliography.

Of the RABELAIS illustrated by you, we ordered large
quantities both in England and in America, and while these
have had a very excellent sale, yet we more than anticipated
our requirements and we therefore have an adequate stock at
the present time.

We look forward to receiving your priced list, which we
will submit to some of our customer collectors.

In the meanwhile, we have the honour to stay

A:L

Nov.19*1928

Mr. Frank C. Pape,
59-b St. John's Road,
Tunbridge Wells, England.

Dear Mr. Pape:

We are very happy to have your two letters of October 27 and November 6th, and to know that the illustrating of our edition of THE HISTORY OF THE TWELVE CAESARS is a work that appeals to you.

Although we should have been quite willing to give a portion of the edition to The Bodley Head and thus secure twenty drawings, as outlined in your earlier letter, yet we are so eager to have you do the work that we are now revising our plans in the expectation that you will make the twelve drawings for us, according to the suggestion in yours of November 6th. Furthermore, we are in a sense committed to bring this publication out in the Fall of 1929, and we believe, upon consideration, that it would be preferable to do so. We find that the work can be contained in one volume, for, which twelve illustrations would be quite sufficient.

In addition to these drawings, we would also like to have you do three, six, or twelve sets of designs to be used as head pieces and tail pieces, for the chapter headings and endings. With this embellishment, we are sure that the twelve drawings would adequately treat the text, which, coincidentally, consists of just twelve chapters, one for each Caesar.

About the first of January, we will issue a catalogue in which will be described all of the books that we will publish within the ensuing year. For this reason, we are desirous of having your final decision in this matter, so that we can include an announcement of the above work. We would appreciate it, therefore, if you would cable your answer, so that we can go ahead with our arrangements.

#2

We might say, parenthetically, that in looking over the
illustrations for PENGUIN ISLAND, we thought them so
fine in every sense, that we are persuaded that you
could just as admirably interpret the spirit of
Suetonius. We think that for your use the small, com-
pact Bohn edition, in one volume, would be eminently
satisfactory, as it contains the complete work, with
voluminous notes. There is no difference between this
and our edition, as far as the information is concerned,
the only difference being in style. You can either ob-
tain a copy of this, if it is easily available to you,
or we will instruct our English agent to send you one.
In the Bohn edition, incidentally, there is included a
"Lives of the Grammarians", which will not be included
in our edition and may be ignored.

In conclusion, we have several other books in prepara-
tion at this time, and we hope that you will be able
to illustrate some of these. We will write you further
about these things, and will take the precaution to
give you plenty of time to fit them in your program.

Again thanking you for your courtesy and co-operation,
and looking forward to the receipt of your cable, we
stay

Very truly yours,
ARGUS BOOKS

BA:B

Jan. 9 * 1929

Mr. Frank C. Pepe,
59b St. John's Road,
Tunbridge Wells, England.

Dear Sir:

We are naturally disappointed in your decision
with respect to the LIVES OF THE CAESARS, as
communicated in your letter of Dec. 2 and the
cable which preceded it, but we understand
your position in the matter and we appreciate
the conscientious consideration you have given
it.

Our delay in writing you has been due to the
fact that we have been trying to readjust our
publishing schedule so that the Soutonius can
be brought cut in 1930, and we can thereby take
advantage of your services. We are so sure that
your work, above that of any other artist, would
fully answer our needs in this instance, that we
have arranged to postpone publication until you
shall have completed the drawings. We are assum-
ing that you will be able to start on this work
in July of this year as suggested in your most
recent letter, and that you will require approxi-
mately three or four months to finish it. Please
understand that in asking for confirmation on
this point we do not wish to hurry you, or ask
you to sacrifice either your personal convenience
or the quality of your work.

Will you, therefore, undertake to make twenty
drawings for this edition, as previously outlined
in our letters, which number is to include the
frontispiece and the title page. We will also
need head pieces and tail pieces for the twelve
chapters. We may also ask you for a design for
the backbone of the bound book, but about this
we will get in touch with you later.

You have probably received by this time a copy

#2

of the Bohn edition of "The Twelve Caesars" which we instructed our English agent to forward to you. We believe you will find all the material you will need in this book, for it is quite complete, and you may ignore the "Lives of the Grammarians" which will not appear in our edition. We want you to use your own judgment entirely, as explained in our previous letters and select such scenes for treatment as seem most adaptable to the purpose.

You may be interested to know that Mr. John Austen has just completed a series of twelve very fine drawings for us to be used in a new edition of SOUTH END, by Norman Douglas which we are bringing out very soon.

We will await final word from you concerning the above before proceeding with our plans, and again thanking you for your courtesy in the matter, we stay

BA:B

Feb.23 *1929

Frank C. Pape,
59b St. John's Road,
Tunbridge Wells, England.

Dear Sir:

Reply to your very kind letter of Jan. 23d has
been somewhat delayed, while we endeavored to
get together all the information on the Seutonius
that you would require to go ahead with the work.

As you assume, the work will be issued in two vol-
umes; the size of the book will be the same as the
various Anatole France books which you illustrated.
We will want ten illustrations, including a fron-
tispiece and title page, for each volume. We
might explain now, although the fact will be ap-
parent to you upon examination of the Bohn edition,
that the preponderating length of the first three
chapters, covering Julius, Augustus, and Tiberius,
fill the first volume, while the other nine chap-
ters are contained in the second. Hence, the
frontispiece for Volume 1 can treat of some inci-
dent from the reign of the first three Caesars,
and that for Volume 2 can be selected from any of
the events of the remaining nine chapters.

It logically follows that the illustrations will
not be drawn equally from the twelve chapters as
the reigns were not uniform in length nor in
events. The scenes for representation, however,
are being left to your own good judgment, as we
have heretofore indicated.

We note that you expect to be able to start on the
work about August 1st, and that the completion of
the drawings will require approximately four months,
with another month for the head and tail pieces,
thus making Feb. 1 or Mar. 1 the probable date on
which they will be delivered to us. This is quite
satisfactory, and we will make our plans accordingly.

Oct. 25 * 1929

Mr. Frank C. Pape,
Percy House, St. John's Road,
Tunbridge Wells,
England.

Dear Mr. Pape:

I have just returned to Chicago after an ex-
tended absence, and find your letter of the
30th of September on my desk.

I note that you have started work on the draw-
ings for the TWELVE CAESARS, and that you ex-
pect to deliver them about the time originally
planned. I am looking forward eagerly to going
ahead with this publication immediately after
the first of the year. It is our intention to
make it a really de luxe book, and to exceed,
in the matter of reproduction, format, and
typography, any book which you have heretofore
illustrated. We are confident that, with
your drawings, and the special care that will
be taken, together with the quality of the
text, it will be a book which you, as well as
we, will be proud to acknowledge.

You may deliver the drawings, when finished,
to our London agent, William Jackson, 18 Took's
Court, Cursitor St., Chancery Lane, and they
will be sent on to us.

With reference to purchasing your original
drawings for sale in our retail shop: sometime
ago we entered into an arrangement like this
with Mr. John Austen, but not having had a de-
partment of prints or drawings up to that time,
we were not very successful in selling them.
However, we have since improved our facilities

#2

in this direction, and we might be able to dispose of your drawings advantageously. I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, and if I had had your letter at that time I should certainly have stopped in at McBride's and picked out the drawings I wanted. Since it is now too late to do this, I am listing below the drawings I would like to handle:

2 color plates from the Russian Story Book, $12 each

2 for the Book of Psalms, at $10 each

2 from the Juveniles, at $8 each

2 from The High Place, at $20 to $25 each

3 or 4 various text drawings

If all of these are in New York, we would appreciate it if you would either write to McBride direct, authorizing them to send these numbers to us, or write to us giving specific instructions which we can submit to them.

For purposes of clarity, we are restating the terms of sale: you are to get your minimum price, together with 25% of the amount realized in excess of that figure; the drawings are to be retained by us for a period of twelve months, at the end of which time, if they are still unsold, they are to be returned in perfect condition to you; during this period they will be subject to your call, in the event you should have an opportunity to dispose of them elsewhere, or should want them back for any other reason.

I thank you very much for your letter and offer, and trust we shall be able to handle the drawings profitably for both of us.

Very truly yours,

ARGUS BOOKS

BA:B

Messrs Argus Book Shop Inc.
333 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago. Ill.

via
"HOMERIC"
Southampton

U. S. A.

Percy House,
St. John's,
Tunbridge, Wells, Engla

January 31, 1934

The Argus Book Shop, Inc.,
Chicago.

Gentlemen:

Forgive my tardiness in thanking you for your kindness in sending me your truly interesting booklet, ALONG THE NORTH WALL. I need hardly say that your appreciative remarks concerning my own efforts gave me much pleasure, and believe me, it is a very nice feeling to know that, anyhow, one's publishers are so generous as to acknowledge the fact that one has given good work. So, thank you again for the praise.

I only wish the "good old times" are not far off when I may again have the singular pleasure of preparing illustrations for you. It is certainly a source of gratification to me to read that your courageous and artistic venture of THE LIVES OF THE CAESARS was not entirely unsuccessful, for I remember that no sooner had you published it than the sad present state of affairs started.

However, I hope we are all through the worst. Things in the publishing world certainly appear to be picking up over here.

It may interest you to hear that I have just completed 8 plates for the LIFE OF ADAM ISAACS MENKEN, the celebrated "Mazeppa" actress of the Sixties. Bernard Falk author of I LAUGHED IN FLEET STREET has written (or is writing) it. It ought to appeal to Americans. Menken was one. Probably Hutchinson will publish it this spring. Look out for it, it's good.

I wonder whether Mr. Abramson is still with you.

By the way, Dennis Wheatley, author of OLD ROWLEY, has had an enormous success here. His thrillers sell like hot potatoes. 7 editions before publication.

Messrs
Argus Books.
333 South Dearborn St.
<u>Chicago</u>. Ill.
U.S.A.
via
Southampton

POSTE
FOR
CHRISTMAS

Messrs
Argus Books Ltd.
333 So. Dearborn St.
<u>Chicago</u> Ill.
via
"SS. "Olympic"
Southampton.
U.S.A.

Personal

Mr. Ben Abramson
4% The Argus Book Shop, Inc.
333 South Dearborn St.
<u>Chicago</u>. Ill.
U.S.A.
via
Southampton

Messrs
Argus Book Shop Inc.
333 So. Dearborn St.
<u>Chicago</u>. Ill.
via
"Majestic"
Southampton
U.S.A.