ALBERTO VARGAS
(1896 - 1982) American artist, a painter of pin-ups and erotica, famous for his inconic ca. 1940s images of girls for Esquire Magazine. Fine content A.L.S. on a sheet of lined notepaper, 1p. 4to., [n.p.], Oct. 21, 1978, to "Smithy & Paula", in part: "...It's been quite a while since you last heard from me but you have no idea the vast amount of sweat and work and anticipation it entails when you are about to 'give birth' to a 'Book' with the Story of your of Life and Work! So! Nov. 10 '78 is the date...For a start, in this small tube I am sending you with pride and pleasure, a year-end calendar that the Pub. Co. 'Crown' has put out...That girl staring at you is part of the loose cover of the Book, which is cloth-bound and makes me swell with pardonable pride. I can just see the sapphire-blue eyes of my gentle Ana gleaming in a rosy cloud in anticipation of reading what I have to say of our trials and tribulations!...I am beginning to raise up my sleeves to go to work on the mass of unfinished work I accumulated in the last 40 years...Luckily my eyesight and my hands are still in perfect order...at my age 82...My solution: I stay clear from arguments, recriminations and anything else that tend to...disturb my mind...". Fine.