Manuscripts Department
           Library of the University of North Carolina
                         at Chapel Hill

                GENERAL AND LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS

                            #11052-z
                      THOMAS BALSTON PAPERS
                            Inventory

Abstract:      Material concerning efforts in the 1940s to
           publish a set of engravings by John Martin
           illustrating John Milton's Paradise Lost.  Included
           are two typescript versions of an essay, "John
           Martin's Paradise Lost" by Thomas Balston (1883-1967),
           which was to introduce the engravings, and letters
           from representatives of King Penguin Books, which had
           initially planned to publish the work, to Balston. 
           The work was never published.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Balston, Thomas, 1883-1967.
   Balston, Thomas. John Martin's Paradise Lost.
   Engraving--19th century.
   King Penguin Books.
   Martin, John, 1789-1854.
   Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise Lost--Illustrations.

Size:  24 items (2 folders).

Provenance:    Transferred from the Rare Book Collection,
               University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in
               August 1987.

Access:        No restrictions.

Processing Note:   This collection was processed with support
                   from the Randleigh Foundation Trust.  

Copyright:     Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
               or their descendants, as stipulated by United
               States copyright law.

Table of Contents:
   Historical Note
   Description

                         HISTORICAL NOTE

   Thomas Balston (1883-1967) was director of the publishers
Duckworth and Co., as well as a distinguished scholar of English
book production, notably illustrations.  In 1947, he published a
full-length biography of John Martin (1789-1854).  Martin had
been commissioned (ca. 1822) by the London publisher Septimus
Prowett to design and engrave twenty-four plates for a large
paper edition of Paradise Lost and a similar set of smaller
plates to appear in a smaller edition of the work.  It is this
smaller set of plates which, in the 1940s, Balston wanted King
Penguin Books to publish.  King Penguin Books initially accepted
the idea, but later decided the plates could not be reproduced
adequately.  Thus, the work was never published.  

                           DESCRIPTION

   The collection includes two carbon copy typescripts of "John
Martin's Paradise Lost" by Thomas Balston, which includes a
lengthy biographical sketch of John Martin and twenty-four
quotations from Paradise Lost to accompany the plates.  There are
also letters from King Penguin Books expressing interest in
publishing Martin's engravings with Balston's introduction.  The
letters discuss the scope of the text and proposals for
illustrations within the introduction.  The project was abandoned
when the printer announced that the plates could not be
adequately reproduced.