GARTH WILLIAMS (1912-1996)
Four preparatory sketches for Stuart Little. Group of four preparatory sketches created for the frontispiece of E. B. White's "Stuart Little" (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945). Graphite on paper. 400x305 mm; 15¾x12 inches, sheets. Each initialed "GW" in lower margin; one drawing with exact tracing on reverse.Provenance: Estate of Garth Williams; Heritage Auctions, 2011; private collection purchased from above.This series of drawings shows the evolution of the drawing that eventually became the frontispiece illustration for Stuart Little. Two of the drawings have notations in pencil by Williams, likely for the approval of E. B. White and editor Ursula Nordstrom. One of them reads: "don't think he should look amused or worried" with an arrow pointing to Mr. Little. Below this is the word "no," probably in White's or Nordstrom's hand. Another sheet has the notation "like this best for head," also with an arrow pointing to Mr. Little.In a 1983 letter to Peter F. Neumeyer, Garth Williams wrote that after much thought, he decided to make Mr. Little look like E. B. White and to make Mrs. Little to look like White's wife, Katharine. Whether or not White realized this homage is unclear, as Williams wrote: "Mr. White passed the frontispiece without comment" (Peter F. Neumeyer, The Annotated Charlotte's Web. New York: HarperCollins, 1994, page 201).