Harrison of Paris records

The Harrison of Paris records document the output of the short-lived fine press and include drafts of texts, setting copy, correspondence, advertisements, catalogs, and clippings. The material covers the years 1930-1979, with the bulk of items dating from the period the press was active, 1930-34. The records described here were culled from the papers of Monroe Wheeler, co-founder of the press. These are presumed to be the most complete group of records with direct provenance from the original press.

The records are housed in 3 boxes and are organized into three series: I. Publications; II. Correspondence; and III. Other Material. Box 9 contains oversize material from Series III.

Series I, Publications , contains 1930s period material relating to eight publications. Most titles are represented by sketches of title pages, specimen pages and prospectuses. The most complete records are for Death of Madame (the text of Monroe Wheeler's translation) and A Typographical Commonplace Book (a set of proof page variants with original texts). Other titles are represented by later records attesting to their reprinting, including an unauthorized copy of Venus and Adonis.

Also present are preparatory materials for two volumes which were never completed by the press (or at least publicly presented): "For My Father", a memoir by Barbara Harrison Wescott and an unidentified book of aphorisms which may have been intended as a second commonplace book.

Series II, Correspondence , contains mostly letters from printers about agreements and the status of projects. There are also letters from Maurice Barraud, who illustrated Carmen and Letters from Spain. The series concludes with a group of general financial and legal correspondence concerning the dissolution of the company and a group of bills for typesetting, printing, and binding. [Related correspondence can be found in the Monroe Wheeler Papers (YCAL MSS 136)]

Series III, Other Material , consists principally of items from the workings of the press itself (advertisements, catalogs, clippings and scrapbooks) and subsequent documentation of the history of the press (auction and booksellers' catalogs and exhibition material). Among the other items here are a setting copy of an invitation to an exhibition of photographs by George Platt Lynes, a typescript of a poem by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, and two copies of the 1932 Harrison of Paris catalog with ink sketches by an unidentified artist.