(NEW YORK CITY) Craig Paul N Archive of letters from a young

Sale 2344 - Lot 201

Price Realized: $ 625

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 250 - $ 350

(NEW YORK CITY.) Craig, Paul N. Archive of letters from a young Missouri man experiencing New York for the first time. 36 Autograph Letters Signed to his future wife Jeannette Kelley (1887-1978), most of them 8 pages or more; condition generally strong; with original cancelled envelopes. New York, October 1908 to January 1911 (bulk 1908)

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Paul Newton Craig (1885-1962) left Independence, MO in 1908 to study under Frank Parsons at the New York School of Art (now the Parsons School of Design). Norman Rockwell was a student there at about this time. Craig enjoyed his instructor: "Mr. Parsons is such an excitable and enthusiastic teacher and gets so comical in his lectures" (25 October). Parsons encouraged Craig to explore "some of the swell hotels and restaurants and opera houses and department stores and get acquainted with the different styles of people" (6 November). Craig was a practicing member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now known as the Community of Christ), although he found few "Saints" in New York. He soon left school to work as an illustrator, and returned to Independence after 1911, where he went on to a successful career as an artist and educator.
The collection's central appeal is in sharing this young man's first experiences in New York--his first subway ride ("this was all new and exciting business to me, but I tried to act like it was an everyday occurrence", 1 October), Central Park, the Met (12 October), the Tombs (16 November), Chinatown (25 November), and the Brooklyn Bridge, which he photographed from a nearby tower on New Year's Day (4 January 1909). The letters are long, filled with details, and charming.