“I love you far more than I do Jesus”
The above phrase must be one of the more unusual and intriguing ways to start a letter; it formed the opening sentence in a note to Silvia but there was no date, just an address in Sussex. It was signed:
Love and thanks and blessings and sincere admiration from
Always your friend
Plankino
In due course, ‘Plankino’ proved to be a nickname for George W Plank who was an American illustrator. Silvia seems to have known him for many years. It is possible they met through the world of theatre during WW1 when Silvia was acting at the Old Vic and Plank was designing theatrical costumes. Or it could have been through Albert Rutherston who advised Plank on some of his costume designs. Rutherston rented out his Chelsea studio apartment to Plank during, or soon after, WW1.
BACKGROUND
Plank was born near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on 25th March 1883. His parents were Jacob & Alice Plank and he had three older sisters: Anna, Amy & Ada. When he was only four years old, however, his mother tragically died. This meant he was brought up by his maternal grandparents instead. Evidently, Plank never went to art college but was a self-taught artist and good enough to find work in factories and department stores. In 1911, he began to supply Vogue with illustrations and cover designs for their magazine. This continued, in both America and Britain, until 1936. The cover designs are some of his best-known works and can be viewed on the Condé Nast website.
Plank moved to England in 1914 but, because of the war, initially only stayed for a couple of years. He made friends easily and quickly found his artistic talents were in demand. He designed theatrical sets as well as costumes and programmes. He could also turn his hand to other items such as bookplates, chintz cloth, maps, posters and stationery.
By the Twenties, Plank was back in England and living in Five Ashes, near Mayfield, East Sussex. At some point, he commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens to design a two-storey house near Five Ashes. It was built during 1926-27 and named Marvells. Plank lived in this house for the next nearly-40 years. It is now a Grade II listed building.
According to Wikipedia, he joined the Home Guard during WW2. Coincidentally, from around 1942, Silvia’s brother was also part of the Home Guard in East Sussex, so perhaps their respective platoons encountered each other on training exercises. He became a British citizen in 1945 and died 20 years later, on 4th May 1965, aged 82, at the Clarence Nursing Home in Tunbridge Wells. He was cremated at the Kent & Sussex Crematorium on 6th May.
CORRESPONDENCE
A few of Plankino’s letters written to Silvia are held at the Beinecke Library. Little Twills, Five Ashes is the address for two of them. They are sent in response to her early publications. Both are full of enthusiastic compliments and comments.
The first is dated 23 July 1924 (a Wednesday) on receipt of a copy of Carnaby Prints. Plank is amazed at the artistic progress Silvia had made in the past few years. He orders 20 black & white copies to give to his friends and one coloured copy. He might have ordered 10 coloured copies but, as they were hand painted (with ink) he refrained from doing so, in consideration for your shapely right hand.
The second letter begins with the quote at the top of this webpage. It is written on a Wednesday – but not, as first thought, in 1924. It must have been a Wednesday in November 1925 as it relates to the publication of Portraits in the London Zoo. Plank had read through the book several times and found it positively enchanting and a real treasure. He is delighted with the prose, as well as the drawings which he describes as first-class. He considers the book to be a great improvement on Carnaby Prints and waxes eloquent about a tree frog which looks like a piece of jade and the beautiful arrangement of two squirrels. He planned to purchase lots of copies as Christmas presents.
The other available letters were written during the years of 1961-64 and relate to Silvia’s correspondence with Ralph Hodgson. One of them (in the family collection) is dated 1st February 1961 from ‘Kenwin’. This was the Swiss home belonging to (Annie) Bryher, overlooking Lake Geneva. Bryher was a wealthy English lady who supported writers in need, including Ralph Hodgson, during the 1950s.* According to this letter, Professor Norman H Pearson of Yale University, had also been supporting Hodgson, anonymously. Plankino goes on to suggest that Silvia might consider bequeathing her Hodgson correspondence to Yale, where it would be cared for with proper respect. Plankino, himself, had already handed over one of his collections (Gordon Craig correspondence). He and Bryher thought that Yale would probably be willing to make some kind of payment for the letters.
Another letter, dated Tuesday 19 March 1963, was written a week before Plankino’s 80th birthday. He had intended to celebrate it in the States. Unfortunately, following several weeks with pneumonia, the trip was postponed and, instead, he booked a cabin on the ‘Queen Liz’ to travel out in May. He writes Darling Silvia, your good letter came yester-morn, just as I had decided to write to you. This is because he wanted to let Silvia know that he had received a letter from Pearson and was delighted to learn she had offered to bequeath her Hodgson letters to Yale University Library. He goes on to say that Pearson is a most charming, dear, kind friend, not only to so many people but to RH in particular.
* Harding, John: Dreaming of Babylon (Greenwich, 2008) p197
AMERICAN NETWORK
There is no indication as to how Plankino knew Professor Pearson but there does seem to be an American network at play. As a youngster, Plankino knew Marianne Moore, a poet, who lived nearby in Philadelphia and, later, he illustrated one of her books. Moore attended Bryn Mawr College (Philadelphia) and was a classmate of the poet HD (Hilda Doolittle).
Ezra Pound grew up in Pennsylvania and met Hilda when she was at Bryn Mawr. He wrote a series of poems dedicated to her as HD. They became engaged and she followed him to the UK in 1911. They never married but their lives continued to be intertwined.
In 1918, HD met Annie Ellerman, better known as Bryher, who became her partner and life-long friend. They had a complicated relationship but their friendship continued until HD died. Bryher was a close friend of Professor Pearson, whose research focussed on Ezra Pound. HD corresponded with Pearson throughout her adult life and Pearson managed her literary estate as well as Bryher’s.
A few of Silvia’s letters and drawings ended up at Bryn Mawr in the Ralph & Aurelia Bolliger Hodgson papers. Donations to the collection were gifted in part by Aurelia and in part by Seymour Adelman; the bulk of the collection was purchased by the Seymour Adelman Fund.
Pages for Albert Rutherston and Professor NH Pearson will be added to this Website in due course
Further Information on George Plank is available: here
The Beinecke letters are held in the Silvia Baker Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.