WCP5078

Letter (cc) (WCP5078.5556)

[1]1

1st Feb[ruar]y [1]901

D[octo]r. A. R. Wallace.

Dear Sir,

We are much obliged by your note of yesterday. Messrs Houlston & Sons2 are prepared to supply us with blocks from Philip’s History of Progress;3 but ask me to let them know which ones we want. If you could limit them to such as would go in our space, it would be desirable, as, though Messrs Houlston are willing to sell us electrotypes,4 they may not be prepared to allow us to make reduced blocks ourselves.

Williams'5 book could be reproduced by photography, [2] though we might ask the publishers of the book if they would supply us electro[type]s, & will do so if you will kindly supply us a list of those you think of using.

Yours very truly

1
The letter bears no heading or signature, but originates from ARW’s London publisher Swan Sonnenschein & Co., founded in 1878 by William Swan Sonnenschein (1855-1931).
2
Houlston & Sons, publishers, originally of Wellington, Shropshire, later moved to offices in Paternoster Square, London E.C by the early 1900s.
3
Philp, R. K. (1866). The History of Progress in Great Britain London, Houlston & Co.
4
The engraved boxwood block or woodcut dominated early Victorian book illustration. Electrotyping later replaced woodcuts for the production of fine artwork in books. In the second half of the century, most woodblock engravings were actually printed from electrotypes.
5
Not identified. A 'Mr. Williams' was involved in the selection of illustrations for Wallace A. R. (1901). The Wonderful Century Reader London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., published in November 1901 (see WCP5067).This was an abridged version of the 4th Edition (February 1901) of The Wonderful Century; Its Successes and Its Failures, first published in 1898.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (cc) (WCP5078.5556)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP5078,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP5078