ARCHIVE.
[PUBLISHING ARCHIVE]. IBBOTSON, Ruth A.M. A COLLECTION OF ALS’S, TLS’S, RETAINED COPIES, 3 LARGE DRAWINGS, 1 LARGE WATERCOLOUR, A TRIAL BINDING, THE ART WORK FOR THE BINDING SPINE PANEL, AND PROOFS, all relating to her book: Adventures of Missionary Explorers. True stories of the Heroism, Fortitude, & Indomitable Courage of Dr T. L. Pennell, W. Barbrooke Grubb, Bishop Bompas, Griffith John, George Grenfell, & Many Other Well Known Missionaries in All Part of the World. London: Seeley, Service & Co., 1915.
The archive comprises:
1. 7 ALS’s by the author to her publisher, F. Stanley Service, about the book. 10pp., 4to & 8vo. London and Alstonfield, Derbyshire, January 12, 1913-July 29, 1914.
2. 4 TLS’s from the printers William Bredon & Son to the publisher about production of the book of which 1,500 copies were ordered, with 260 to have Lippincott’s joint imprint. 4to, 4pp. Plymouth, 25 May 1914-11 June 1914. PLUS: 4 retained copies totalling 6 pp. of TLS’s from the publisher to the printer about book production and art work, including one letter from 1918 about reprinting the book.
3. A fine trial sample of the colour illustrated and decorated binding with an original preliminary watercolour of the spine panel upon which the publisher has written “Get better blue (not Ricketts like this) & a livelier green.” Inside the binding is written in pencil “II. Selected/ to have back the panel as on lighter cloth.”
4. A fine unsigned finished watercolour, 11 x 7”, on stiff artists’ board: “Henry A. Stern challenged to a duel by King Theodore of Abyssinia.” With printer’s proofs in colour of this illustration, with pencil notes. A sheet of notes states that the artist was “Campbell.” Possibly John F. Campbell?
5. 3 unsigned original black-and-white watercolours, each 11 x 7”, on stiff artists’ board: 1. Attempted Murder of W. Barbrooke Grubb. (Missionary), showing a native just having shot Grubb in the back. 2. Francis Xavier in Japan, showing a number of Japanese horsemen being led out of a snowy village by Europeans on foot, with villages throwing rocks at them. 3. ‘John Geddie’ missionary in the New Hebrides, showing Geddie trying to intervene in a fight between two natives in a room. A sheet of notes states that the artist was “Campbell.” Possibly John F. Campbell?
6. Proofs from a drawing not here, and proofs for the title for the 1915 and 1920 editions, the former with the author’s initials incorrect.
Ibbotson’s book proved popular and was reprinted in 1920, and again in 1928.
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