Three Autograph Letters Signed to Denys Blakelock, biographer of Eleanor Farjeon (pub. 1966) as Denys Blakelock, then Denys, initially signing "edward Ardizzone" then "Ted".

Total 4pp., 4to, with two surviving envelopes addressed in his hand, some corrections and additions, good condition. They are corresponding about Eleanor Farjeon and (Jan. 1965) Ardizzone sends him a letter from her to him "which should enable you to find the poem I mentioned. If I had a copy of 'Silver sand & Snow' I would be able to spot it at once. Alas I haven't got one. | It would certainly pay Eleanor's Estate & me included, if I am to illustrate it on a royalty basis, to offer it at once to Walek [agent?] & cut out Oxford. | My wife, who is my memory, however thinks that since this letter of Eleanor's, Eleanor had offered it to the O.U.P. There is of course no reason why Eleanor's executors should know this. But obviously they must walk warily in the matter if they think it is worth pursuing." He is pleased that Gollancz will publish the Farjeon biography and expects he'll find an American publisher. "Eleanor was a gret name there & Doubledays though large, are by no means the only pebble on the beach." He asks for the letter to be returned. "It is one of the few things I have of hers, & I would like to hoard it." In his second letter (June 1966) he is in a rush to go to France for six weeks and cannot take on "anything extra. At any other time I should have been delighted to make some drawings.." He has just presented the "Eleanor Farjeon Award" to Margery Fisher. "Naturally I talked mostley of Eleanor, & what she had meant to me as an illustrator. I hope I did her memory justice." In the third letter (Dec. 1967) He praises the "little book" Blakelock has sent, discusses the weather, the slippery pavement and an accident with their car. "And yet paradoxically I love the snow too, and wouldn't do witho0ut an occasional; bout of it for the worlds. It is so beatiful & transforms London into a fairy world." Note: Ardizzone illustrated several works by Farjeon (see BLC) and also a tribute volume to her published in 1966 (Farjeon died in 1965).