Susanne Suba papers

Collection

Identifier: VAULT.folio-Wing-MS-133

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Letters, illustration samples, telegram, and photograph, dated between July 21, 1939 and Jan. 28, 1965, concerning the illustration work done by Susanne Suba of New York, for William A. Kittredge, of R.R. Donnelley's Lakeside Press, and the Chicago book design and publishing scene in general during the 1940s. The 6 letters written in 1939 by William Kittredge, Lakeside Press book designer, to Susanne Suba, discuss her illustrations of the Kittredges' two Siamese cats for their Christmas card. With the letters are 4 sample cards in different colors, and a tiny booklet "card." Suba continued to work on illustration projects for Kittredge, as the 21 1940-1942 letters indicate. Projects included drawings for a First Reader for an exhibition of schoolbooks; four Zodiac designs for a possible calendar series; Suba's proposal to illustrate an edition of Masters' Spoon River Anthology, preempted by the Limited Editions Club edition of 1942; and the invitation and poster for an RRD Juvenile Books Exhibit. Kittredge's congratulatory telegram to Suba on finishing the poster is dated May 14, 1942. Most of the remaining letters (10) are personal letters to Suba in New York from Mary Baugild, who, as secretary to William Kittredge (and as a writer in her own right), had acquired an extensive knowledge of publishing and book design activities in Chicago. Her letters mention well-known artists and illustrators, such as Dale Nichols, Grant Wood, and Ernst Detterer, and provide inside details on the projects and people at R.R. Donnelley, such as Allen Converse (Sales Promotion Manager), Harry J. Owens (Advertising Manager), and C. Prentiss Smith (Design & Typography).