Barry Moser papers May Be Restricted

The papers of Barry Moser contain correspondence, art work, woodcuts, and illustrated books in all stages of manufacture from typescript to finished copy. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically and contains both professional and personal letters, mostly for the years 1970-1979. Correspondence related to a specific work is filed with those works. The works are arranged alphabetically in two groups, regular and oversized. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" will be found in both the regular and oversized works, and "The Aenid" and "Inferno" are in oversized boxes only. The works range in size and complexity from the short typescript for "Homage to Mondrian" to the boxes of woodblocks and printed material for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and the folders of correspondence and reference material for "Moby Dick". Of interest is the "Moby Dick" correspondence, which displays the difficulties, including legal action, of the cross-country collaboration between Moser as illustrator and Andrew Hoyam as designer and publisher.

The woodblocks fall into three groups: first, a group arranged chronologically and pictured in the woodblock catalog (located in box 5); second, the blocks from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", which are filed by the numbers of the pages on which the prints appear in the book; and third, eighteen blocks which are uncatalogued and unnumbered. [No prints may be pressed from the the wood cuts.]

The following woodblocks appear in the catalog, but are not included in this collection: 71H, 71I, 73D, 76A2, 78J, 78Q, 78R, 78X, 79T, 79V

A box list addendum (boxes 85-137) was added to the collection in 2008 and includes a variety of materials both professional and personal. Professional papers include illustrations, photographs, book jackets, woodcuts, calligraphy, drafts of works, dummy copies, notes, prints, contracts, correspondence with publishing companies, invitations to speaking engagements, copies of speeches, and other professional material related to the Pennyroyal Press and Moser's commissions. Projects include, but are not limited to, “Master Richard’s Bestiary of Love”. Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, the Bible, “The Guild Shakespeare”, "The Wizard of Oz", "Huckleberry Finn", Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass”. Personal papers can be found throughout the addendum, and include correspondence, bills, invitations, newspaper and magazine articles on Moser, and wedding preparations.