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4to. Lot of five autograph letters signed by Roger Duvoisin, to Alvin Tresselt (accompanied by carbon typescript copies of Tresselt's responses), with excellent content about the collaboration between an author and artist. The Beaver Pond, written by Tresselt and illustrated by Duvoisin, was published in 1970. Duvoisin and Tresselt collaborated on a number of books, as illustrator and author, including: 'White Snow, Bright Snow' [winner of the 1948 Caldecott Award], 'Hide and Seek Fog' [Caldecott Honor book for 1966], and many others. Contents are as follows: 1) Carbon TS, 1 p., from Tresselt to Duvoisin, April 20, 1969, beginning: "Dear Roger, I have now rewritten the Beaver Pond story to my satisfaction. I hope you will find it improved, too. What I now have is much truer to the realities of nature. I have tried, in capsulated form, to trace the birth, life and death of a pond, from the time the beavers first build their dam to form the pond, through its zenith and general decline as it silts up to its final transformation into a mountain meadow." He goes on to suggest possible illustrations for the book. 2) ALS, 2 pp., May 5, 1969: The letter, to "Dear Alvin," begins: "There is much unfinished work laying on my table that I had to let my mail wait patiently in one corner, neatly piled in a box. Lily told me last Friday that she had asked you to correct a few things but she did not explain. She liked your story very much. Your corrected story, which I received on Saturday, proves that you are good, modest, obedient author! It seems that Lily wanted to bring in the dangerous side of beaver life. Here I have to ask you to clarify something which is not to clear to me." The rest is very clear. Your story is quite fine; it brings out well and poetically the rhythm of life around a new pond. He continues with discussions of their forthcoming meeting, his desire to do a "Museum of Natural History sort of book," personal matters, travel details, etc., "With best regards to Blossom, Cordially, [signed] Roger." 3) Carbon TS, 2 pp., from Tresselt to Duvoisin, May 9, 1969, beginning: "Dear Roger, How nice to get your good long letter. .The beaver babies sort of stand for the carefree play of the young in contrast to the business-like activities of the adults; the same idea I conveyed in WHITE SNOW BRIGHT SNOW and HIDE AND SEEK FOG.". He goes on to discuss other details regarding proposed book projects and publishing details regarding 'Donkey Donkey,' 'It's Time Now,' etc. 4) ALS, 4 pp., October 17, 1969. "Those pages must express the changes of colors in the various seasons and must all be in 4 colors. Furthermore children, in my experience, are disturbed by the changes from color to black and vice versa. This breaks the smooth development of the story." He goes on to detail his negotiations with the publisher and editor, and necessary changes to the format and color layout. "The problem is that I would like to have only two lines under the double spreads to leave much space for the paintings and this would require some tiny changes in your text. Duvoisin goes into great detail, regarding specific changes to text and layout of the book: "Your story is very, very fine and I think the finished book will be quite interesting. Too bad however that we can't have 16 double spreads. Inflation." 5) ALS, 1 p., November 3, 1969. The letter, to "Dear Author," begins: "Thanks for obligingly going along with my layout. It helps a lot. Do not worry, there will be plenty of room for that nice line." [he continues with additional details about word choice and illustrations, etc.] Love to you and Blossom, [signed] Roger" [followed by a two line postscript]. 6) ALS, 2 pp., April 24, 1972. Discusses original art work for 'Hide and Seek Fog' and Duvoisin's desire for Tresselt to have one of the original gouaches. 7) ALS, 4pp., June 14, 1972. He discusses, in rather great detail, his complaints about the quality of printing by the publisher, including "slo.
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