Apr 02, 2009 - Sale 2175

Sale 2175 - Lot 76

Unsold
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
LOFTING, HUGH. Archive comprising original manuscript, artwork, and typed and autograph letters. Contains a 49-page typecript of Victory of the Slain, 10 original drawings, 24 autographed or typed and signed letters and correspondence, including a long autobiographical letter describing his original ideas for Dr. Doolittle and a letter from Sargent Shriver as the president of the Dr. Doolittle Club at Yale University. All housed in green cloth chemises (one each for the drawings and the letters); laid into a matching clamshell box with a printed spine label. Vp, chiefly 1930s-40s
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Additional Details

an impressive archive of material by the famed children''s author and artist.
The letters provide rare insight into his personal and professional life, with an emphasis on his years in Southern California in the 1930s. There are 3 pages of typed correspondence from April 1937 between Lofting, his publishers, and Sargent Shriver, who writes as chairman of the Doctor Doolittle Club at Yale University. Shriver would later become founder of many social programs (Vista, Head Start, The Jobs Corps) under his brother-in-law President John Kennedy, serve as Ambassador to France in 1968-70, and run as a Vice-Presidential Candidate in 1972. An 8-page ALS to Lofting''s wife discusses uncomfortable negotiations with a difficult Walt Disney for Doctor Doolittle: "Mr. Disney was not and never had been a creator . . . Mr. Walt Disney was and always had been a producer" and describes how Disney wanted full rights and control yet did not commit to the production of the work. 8vo, Hollywood, 3 January 1939. Other letters are to his wives, editors, and fans. The typed manuscript of Victory of the Slain has corrections in pencil. Published in England in 1942, this poem is Lofting''s only work for adults.
Original artwork includes a small Christmas card from 1935, a pencil drawing of Doctor Doolittle, and sketches of characters Hildebrand, Ermintrude, and Ignatious. Original material by the Newberry Award-winning Lofting is uncommon. a full list of the contents is included in the lot and available on request.