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Special Collections

One of the purposes of The Rockwell Kent Forum is to make available information that is not generally accessible on the internet. Such items will be placed in the “Special Collections” page.

This includes historical items, as well as new, previously unpublished, writings.

Please scroll down to see the latest items (the oldest items are listed first)

First up is the transcript of an interview Rockwell Kent gave to reporter John Wingate for the
“Nightbeat” program in 1957. At this point Kent was heavily involved in his fight to have his passport
returned to him. I am grateful to my friend Bob Rightmire for his work in preparing this transcript, from
an audio tape in the possession of the late Gladys Spector. It should be noted that another, separate,
transcript of the interview exists in the Rockwell Kent Papers at the Archives of American Art. That
transcript was published in the 2015/2016 issue of “The Rockwell Kent Review”.

Download the transcript here

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Rockwell Kent in the South Seas – An interesting letter exchange between Rockwell Kent and author Frederick O’Brien, with commentary by Robert Rightmire

The Missing Irish Paintings. Author Christy Gillespie is working on a book about Ireland and Kent’s time there. He is looking for  9 paintings from the era, where they are located, and to get better images of them. Christy has written an exclusive article for the Rockwell Kent Forum to assist in the search.

Rockwell Kent stamp checklist. Kent designed a number of postage stamp and stamp-related items. Regular contributor, Robert Rightmire has collated a Checklist of these items

Greenland Airmail Stamp Cover. The Checklist above talks about Covers featuring the Greenland Airmail Stamp. The Rockwell Kent Forum editors have found another Cover, not mentioned in the Checklist. The search goes on…

Kent and Soviet Art: Multi-Media presentation. In October 1958, Kent participated in a panel on Pacifica Radio. The subject of that panel was Art in the Soviet Union. We have a copy of that interview, plus some other interesting items related to that time. The interview and other items are available here

In Your Image: Iceberg to The Artist in Greenland. There has been some confusion regarding Rockwell Kent’s painting The Artist in Greenland. It has been assumed that the latter was painted in 1935 when in fact it was not created until 1960. Kent specialist Scott Ferris has written a fascinating essay about this. Read the Essay

The Jewel. In 1917, Kent wrote a Holographic novel for his mistress, Hildegarde Hirsch. The Rockwell Kent Forum has an exclusive set of documents for download, including a PDF copy of this important publication. Click here for more information and to download the documents.

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Veteran’s Day Special. I want to wish a very Happy Veteran’s Day to all my fellow veterans (Army 1980-1985; Schweinfurt, West Germany and Presidio of San Francisco, CA). Please take a look at our Veteran’s Day Special , featuring an article by the then-soldier-artist Bill Mauldin about Rockwell Kent during Kent’s visit to Camp Barkley, Texas in 1942.  The special also shows two Kent images; the first is Kent’s illustration for the cover of the American Legion Victory Ball Program from November 10, 1924.  The second is the cover to a charity program he did in 1942.

Cinderellas of Rockwell Kent. A Cinderella is a label that looks like a stamp but isn’t. Stamp and Kent Collector Dr Arthur Groten has written an interesting article about the Cinderellas that Kent produced. Exclusive to the Rockwell Kent Forum, we bring you the article for some Thanksgiving reading. Download the article here.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Editors and Publishers of the Rockwell Kent Forum

“New” Kent Cinderella stamp surfaces. In the 1940s Rockwell Kent was heavily involved in a fraternal labor organization called the International Workers Order (IWO). After World War II the IWO began a milk fund drive to help destitute and starving children in Europe, primarily Eastern Europe. Members could get stamps and stamp books from the IWO headquarters. The Rockwell Kent Forum has owned a copy of the stamp for several years, but was unsure it was by Kent. My friend Scott Ferris owns the illustrated Milk Fund brochure, which is from his collection and reproduced here with his kind permission. The brochure confirms that Kent designed the stamp. The editor would be interested in seeing the stamp book.

More information on Kent’s other Cinderella stamps can be found in the previous article on this page.

Merry Christmas to all our Readers. Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today, with 1200 hits and counting! So, thank you, and here is a special Christmas gift, exclusive to the Rockwell Kent Forum – A Rockwell Kent Christmas, featuring a selection of Kent’s many Christmas images. Please download and enjoy with our thanks.

January 2022 Update: It has been brought to our attention that the document mentioned above contained incorrect information about the GE Christmas Calendars (page 15). We have fixed the error and the corrected version can be downloaded here. Many thanks to Rockwell Kent expert and regular contributor Scott Ferris for pointing out the error. Sorry it took us so long to fix it!

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Our friend Eliot Stanley of Maine has been one of the major forces in Rockwell Kent scholarship for many years. Two of his important articles can be found under the “Articles” tab.  He also gave illustrated lectures about Kent in the 1990s. Eliot has graciously allowed the Forum to preserve two of these lectures, which were originally recorded with then-current equipment. First up is a lecture Eliot gave on Monhegan Island, Maine. Understanding Kent’s experience on Monhegan, also called “The Artists’ Island,” is essential to Kent scholarship.

Click here to view the film

Warning: the film has deteriorated due to age and the medium it was recorded on. The yellow color of the film is due to this deterioration. However, this is a tremendous, important, illustrated lecture and as such is definitely worth viewing

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Rockwell Kent and Film:”The Thin Man.” As far as we know, Rockwell Kent did not appear in any movies. His art, however, has. Dashiell Hammett was author of the novel “The Thin Man,” and the model for his hero, Nick Charles. He, like Kent, was a man of the left. Kent and Hammett were in the same left-wing artistic circles in New York, along with Hammett’s partner, the playwright Lillian Hellman. Kent designed the striking frontispiece for Hellman’s World War II play, “Watch on the Rhine.” Several years ago your editors were watching the movie “The Thin Man” with William Powell and Myrna Loy. There is a party scene in the movie set at their New York apartment. I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw a large reproduction of Kent’s magnificent print “The Lovers” on the mantelpiece! After a lot of looking, I was able to find a screenshot from that scene, showing the picture. This may have been a large reproduction that Kent did in connection with his work with the Contempora design studio, but that is a topic for another day.

The illustrations below are Hammett as The Thin Man, Kent’s frontispiece to “Watch on the Rhine,” the screenshot from “The Thin Man,” and “The Lovers.”

Postscript: Our Kent Forum friend, Scott Ferris, has reminded us that Kent paintings have been seen in other films and mentioned in non-Kent books. A good example of this is in Woody Allen’s 1985 film “The Purple Rose of Cairo”. The painting is “Alpes Maritime”.

A screenshot of the film, showing the painting on the wall of an office, is shown below:

Update: Scott’s keen eyes have spotted another Kent in film, this time in the film Se7en (1995), at the time in the film at 26:32-26:36. As Morgan Freeman’s character looks through the library stacks, there is a shot of a bookshelf, where there is a copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, illustrated by Kent. See the screenshot below:

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Rockwell Kent meets Cancel Culture! A special report by your editor about his recent experience with Facebook. Read the full report here

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More video from Eliot Stanley. In addition to the 1994 lecture on Monhegan Island by Eliot Stanley (scroll up to see this video), we have a video of a lecture Eliot gave to the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1998. This lecture was on a different topic to the Monhegan lecture and featured different artworks. Taken together, both videos are important records of Kent information and his works. See the video here

Addition to the Greeting Cards of Rockwell Kent. In 2013, Rockwell Kent Forum contributor and  friend, Bob Rightmire published “The Greeting Cards of Rockwell Kent”. In the years since, Bob has found some additions and corrections, which he has put together in a document. Available exclusively on The Rockwell Kent Forum, download the PDF here

Bob’s original book is available in hardcover on Amazon: The Greeting Cards of Rockwell Kent

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United States 1939 Christmas Seal Exhibit

The Articles  page of the Forum has an article by Arthur H. Groten, M.D., about the 1939 Christmas Seal. Read more about the Seal here

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Come, Let us Change Chiefs Addendums

While researching the two articles about the Post Office Murals Controversy (see the Articles page), your editor came across some preliminary sketches for the murals. These and another article “The Post Office Murals as Art” are located here

 

“The Rainbow” Mystery

Hello friends. Who loves a mystery? Here is a Rockwell Kent double mystery: Several years ago, at a library sale I bought a book published in 1943 called “The Rainbow” by a Polish-Soviet author named Wanda Wasilewska. It was from The Book Find Club, which was a leftist book club somewhat like the Book of the Month Club. Inside the book I discovered two things. First, my copy was sent out by the Frontline Fighters Fund of the International Workers Order and states, “With deepest appreciation for your contributions TO VICTORY.” The page also has a well-known design by Kent. It is printed in the book, not a sticker or stamp, so obviously a special printing. Question one: were there more books? I would also like to see any ads for this particular book from “Fraternal Outlook” or other sources. More intriguing, if possible, was what I found pasted inside the front cover. A miniature version of Kent’s illustration, “The Vision.” This is from “The Mad Hermit” series in Kent’s book WILDERNESS. It is 2 inches wide, 1 3/4 inches tall. It is beautifully printed and does not appear to be cut, so may have been from a sheet of stickers or poster stamps. Has anyone seen another? The three illustrations are the cover of the book and the two illustrations. Do you own a mystery Kent? Let us know about it! Message me, email me at willross@rockwellkent.us.

“Paradise” and the 1919 Knoedler catalog

In mid August 2021, the drawing “Paradise” was sold by Alderfer Auctions for $20,000. Beyond being a great price this is a very interesting Alaska drawing. I don’t believe it has been reproduced before. As noted by the Kent Forum friend and regular contributor Scott Ferris it is number 36 in the Knoedler catalog of their 1919 exhibition. Only 1500 copies of the catalog were printed. It is very scarce. Knoedler was a New York Gallery in the early 20th Century. A pdf reproduction of the catalogue can be downloaded here.

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1961 “Soviet Screen” article

We recently acquired a Russian film magazine from 1961, issue 10 of “Soviet Screen”, which contains an article about Kent’s visit to Russia. Not being Russian speakers, we called upon the services of our friend Dmitry Kiselev to translate the article. Dmitry not only provided a translation but located more photos from the Russian tour from the Russian Novosti Press Agency Website. Thanks Dmitry!

The article text, translation and images can be downloaded here

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“Pine Trees” Fabric Photos

On our Articles page, we have a link to the 2021 Cora Ginsburg Catalogue, which has an article about the Kent “Pine Trees” fabric. When we reached out to Cora Ginsburg for permission to include the article, they sent us a high-definition photo of the fabric. Thanks to Martina D’Amato for the photo below:

Just for fun, here are two images of the fabric owned by the Forum editors (not so high-def):

The first image shows the entire section of the fabric (44in X 40in approx)

And here is a close up on the detail (we think it’s quite beautiful):

 

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Christy Gillespie Interview
While your editors were in Ireland recently, we recorded an interview with Christy Gillespie, author of the upcoming book “The Road to Glenlough”.

See the interview on youtube® below:

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Eric Downs Interview

We recently interviewed Eric Downs, filmmaker and creator of the new short film ” A Dreamer’s Search”, about Kent’s time on Fox Island, Alaska in 1918. Listen to the interview below:

Note, the image above is the chart from Wilderness, mentioned in the interview

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The Blue Mouse title page
The Blue Mouse. The Rockwell Kent forum is especially pleased to be able to present Kent’s first “book”, The Blue Mouse, created in 1906. Please go to our Blue Mouse page to read about this important piece of Kentiana and to read an electronic copy of the manuscript.

Rockwell Kent and the IWO. Rockwell Kent’s involvement with the International Workers Order was one of the most consequential of his life. Yet it is also one of the least understood or appreciated. Kent began as a regular member of the IWO in the 30s, eventually rising to be President of the Order in the late 1940s until its dissolution by the Insurance Department of the State of New York in 1954. We have created a section in the Rockwell Kent Forum to bring together all the material we have regarding this important time in Kent’s life.  Click here to access the IWO section of the website.

Wilderness Reprint – Kent on the Warpath! In 1970, Rockwell Kent worked with Leon Berney and Richard Lewis to produce a limited-edition reprint of Wilderness, to be published by Ward-Ritchie Press. Berney and Lewis obtained a list of Kent associates to approach regarding buying early discounted copies (a sort of early GoFundMe). Somewhere along the way, the project that Kent had in mind went off the rails. The letter that people received seemed to infer that Kent had passed away and Berney & Lewis were publishing this new version of Wilderness as an act of charity for his estate! This did not go over well with Kent. After Sally received many calls of sympathy, Kent found a copy of the letter and sent a blistering reply to Leon Berney. It all makes for interesting reading, and you can read a copy of the correspondence here.

Greece! As far as we know, Kent never went to Greece. He did, however, use Greek themes in his art. Your editors met in Greece and are celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary in early August 2023! With all of that in mind, we present the Rockwell Kent Forum Greece page, celebrating all things Greek in the Kent world (at least those we know about!)

USSR! Some time ago, we started the page “Kent and Art in the Soviet Union” with a recording from a Radio Pacifica Interview in 1958. We will periodically add to the Soviet Union page, as we have just done with an original article “The Journey to the USSR gave start to the Most Important Period of my Life”, from “Meeting the Past. Artistic Life in Documents from the Central State Archive of Literature and Arts of the USSR”, vol.6, Moscow, Soviet Russia Publishers, 1988, p.332-357″, translated and annotated by Dmitry Kiselev.