Early letter

                                                                                                                                           32 Queen’s Terrace                                                                                                                                                   St John’s Wood                                                                                                                                                               Saturday

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4.2.11

 

Dear Mr Richards

                                    I have some drawings (as yet in the initial stages) which I should like you see and approve before completion.

I have been confined to my rooms for some time past with a bad cold - hence the delay.

                                                                                    Yours faithfully

                                                                                              A E Odle

 

Bryn Mawr College

Seymour Adelman Letters & Documents collection BMC-M144

This letter to the (presumably) publisher Grant Richards is the earliest one I know of to a publisher. I have not been able to ascertain the dates of his time at St John's Wood art school but there was a drawing published in 1911 that said he was at St John's Wood art School so this must be a very early attempt to be published.  It is interesting though that he uses the phrase 'see and approve before completion' which does tend to suggest that there was already a commission, but it obviously came to nothing.