Simon, Edith (writer and artist) (1917-2003)
Dates
- Existence: 1917-2003 - 2003
Biography
Edith Simon was born on 18 May 1917 in Berlin, Germany, to Walter and Grete Simon. Educated at the Fürstin-Bismarck Gymnasium, she showed a talent for art and history, and enjoyed early success with the publication of her drawings whilst still only 10 years old. Her father Walter, a decorated Great War veteran and successful businessman, moved with his young family to London when Edith was just 15, as the political climate in Germany became increasingly threatening. Edith, alongside her younger sister Inge, arrived in the British capital in 1932.
Edith studied for a short time at both the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Art and Design. She also became an early member of the Artists International Association (AIA), which formed in London in 1933.
Writing Career
Embarking on her professional writing career, Edith’s first book was a children’s adventure story which she wrote and illustrated, titled Somersaults and Strange Company, published by Lawrence & Wishart in 1937. She had also begun working at this time as a book jacket illustrator, demonstrating her signature style and draughtsmanship. In 1938, she translated Arthur Koestler’s The Gladiators into English, which was published a year later. Her first novel, The Chosen, was published in 1940 by John Lane, The Bodley Head, when Edith was still only 23.
She would go on to author 17 books, including contemporary novels, historical novels, and histories, as well as contributing to edited collections. Her published work includes:
Somersaults and Strange Company (Lawrence & Wishart 1937)
The Gladiators by Arthur Koestler, (UK Johnathan Cape 1939; US Macmillan - New York 1939) (translated by Edith Simon)
The Chosen (The Bodley Head 1940)
Biting the Blue Finger (The Bodley Head 1942)
Wings Deceive (The Bodley Head 1944)
The Other Passion (The Bodley Head 1948)
The Golden Hand (UK edition Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1952; US edition G.P. Putnam's Sons 1951)
The Past Masters (UK edition Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1953; US edition 'The House of Strangers', G.P. Putnam's Sons 1953)
The Twelve Pictures (UK edition Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1956; US edition G.P. Putnam's Sons 1955)
The Sable Coat (Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1958)
The Piebald Standard: A Biography of the Knights Templar (UK edition Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1959; US edition G.P. Putnam's Sons 1959)
The Undying Past, ed. Orville Prescott (Doubleday 1961) (contributor)
The Great Forgery (UK edition Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1962; US edition Little, Brown & Co. 1962)
The Making of Frederick the Great (UK edition Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1963; US editions Little, Brown & Co., reprint Greenan Press)
Friedrich Der Grosse, Das Weiden eines Königs (Rainer Wunderlich Verlag, Hermann Leins, Tubingen, 1963)
The Book of Books – A Treasury of Great Bible Fiction, eds. Irwin R Blacker & Ethel H Blacker (Holt, Reinhart & Winston NY, 1965) (contributor)
The Reformation (Time-Life 1966)
Die Reformation von Edith Simon und der Redaktion der Time-Life (Time-Life 1967)
The Saints (UK edition Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1968; US edition Delacorte Press 1968)
Luther Alive (UK edition Hodder & Stoughton 1968; US edition Doubleday 1968)
The Anglo-Saxon Manner (Cassell & Co. Ltd. 1972)
The Makers of Modern Thought (Horizon Books American Heritage Books – subsidiary of McGraw Hill 1972) (contributor)
‘Frederick II the Great of Prussia’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1974) (contributor)
In addition, Edith also wrote two plays ‘The Inimitable’ and ‘Love Me, Scum’, neither of which were ever performed, and she completed a film script entitled 'A Perfect Marriage'.
It was in London in 1942 that Edith met the noted scientist Dr. Eric Reeve, whom she married that same year. The couple moved to Edinburgh in 1947 to facilitate Eric’s new role with Edinburgh University’s Genetics Department. They lived first at Mortonhall House, alongside a team of geneticists also working at the University. They would subsequently move to Roseberry Crescent, and Lansdowne Crescent, before settling permanently in Grosvenor Crescent. They had three children, Antonia (b.1950), Simon (b.1952), and Jessica (b. 1954).
Art Career
Edith returned to her artistic practice in the early 1970s, participating in an early exhibition at the Demarco Gallery in Edinburgh in 1970, followed by her first one-woman show at Gallerie Balans in Amsterdam in 1971 where she presented mobile sculptures and her signature papercut bas relief paintings. Edith would go on to stage and appear in over 50 exhibitions throughout her career. She experimented with and explored many mediums and forms including continuous line drawings, papercut bas relief scalpel paintings, rope sculptures, mobile and soft sculptures, sculptures in stained wood, ciment-fondue, vacuum formed perspex, cast polyester resin, cold-cast bronze, copper, aluminium, metal sheet, and carved plaster. She also utilised painted glass, as well as undertaking murals in paint and wood veneer. For over thirty years, she exhibited annually at the Edinburgh Festival, with her final show being held in 2001. [A full list of exhibitions (1970-2003) is available on the Edith Simon Gallery website cited below.]
In 1995, Edith contracted a respiratory infection which revealed an existing condition, widely known as emphysema. This necessitated the use of daily oxygen for the remainder of her life. Edith Simon died in Edinburgh on 7 January 2003.
Biographical information has been taken from ‘Moderation be Damned: Edith Simon’, published by Antonia Reeve in 2005, alongside the artist’s biographical note on the Edith Simon Gallery website, available at edith-simon.com.
Found in 450 Collections and/or Records:
Letters of Edith Simon and Jessica Reeve to Inge Goodwin and Grete Simon, 29 December 1980 - 26 August 1981
Letters of Edith Simon to her parents, Walter and Grete Simon, 1947-1949
File contains letters and illustrated greeting cards, and one card also from Inge Goodwin (née Simon) to her parents Walter and Grete.
Letters of Edith Simon to 'Mutti' [Grete Simon], with accompanying papers, ?1952, 1972-1975, undated
File contains five letters to 'Mutti' (?1952, 1972-1975). Also included is one undated letter from Theodore Purdy to Edith Simon concerning an unspecified manuscript; a handwritten transcription and English translation (possibly by Inge Goodwin) of a German language poem Walter Simon once wrote for his wife Grete; a typescript entitled 'The Ballad of Mortonhall'; and an illustrated typescript ?riddle/poem by an author identified as Whistlers Boss.
Letters of the Reeve and Goodwin families, and others, to Walter and Grete Simon, 1951-1955
Letters of the Reeve family to Walter and Grete Simon, 1956-1959
File contains greeting cards and letters. Family correspondents include Edith and Eric Reeve and their children Antonia, Jessica, and Simon, writing individually and collectively to both Walter and Grete Simon. File also contains newspaper cuttings relating to Edith Simon's writing career.
Letters of the Reeve family to Walter and Grete Simon, 1960-1964
Family correspondents include Edith and Eric Reeve and their children Antonia, Jessica, and Simon, writing individually and collectively to both Walter and Grete Simon. File also includes a letter addressed to Walter and Grete from possibly 'Frank/Franz'; a short story entitled 'The Visitor' by Jessica Reeve; and a poem entitled 'The Jungle' by Simon Reeve (February 1963).
Letters to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve from family members, 1947-1950
Letters and postcards are at times addressed to Edith and Eric collectively as 'the Reeves', and also individually. Identified correspondents include Inge Goodwin; Dennis Goodwin; and Walter F. Simon.
File also includes a lock of, possibly 'Julia' Goodwin's,. hair, sent as a gift to Edith and Eric on 6 January 1950. Julia Goodwin is the daughter of Inge and Dennis Goodwin.
Letters to Edith Simon from David Mindline, 1937-1944
Letters contain brief illustrations, possibly by Mindline.
Letters to Edith Simon from David Mindline, 1944-1948
Letters contain brief illustrations, possibly by Mindline.
Letters to Edith Simon from Eric Reeve, bulk: 1940-1949, undated
File primarily contains briefly-illustrated letters by Eric Reeve, Edith Simon's husband. Also present is an undated cutting from a published journal article concerning a bone fragment study, and an undated news cutting concerning genetics.
Letters to Edith Simon from Inge Goodwin, née Simon, bulk: [?1940-?1945]
Letters and postcards contain illustrations and were sent by Edith's sister Inge Goodwin (b.1923), from Girton College, Cambridge.
Letters to Edith Simon from 'Rita', [?1930-?1939]
Headed stationery paper used by 'Rita' refers to the companies Martin Karpen: Schuhfabrik (Berlin) and Schuhfabrik Luwal A.G. (Berlin).
Letters to Edith Simon, possibly from early schoolfriends, 1932
Letters contain illustrations. Possible correspondents include Igna Beth Heiden; Ruth Lerner; and 'Edrina'.
Letters to Eric and Edith Reeve from family and friends, 1950-1965, 1988
Identified correspondents include Inge Goodwin and family; 'Basil' possibly Ernest Reeve; possibly 'Howard and Terry'; J.A. Morgan and P. Murray; possibly 'Newt'; possibly 'Terry'; 'Jeanne'; Eric Reeve's parents, Irene Vera Gill & William Ernest Reeve; possibly Anne Spalding; 'Sara'; 'Anne'; Dennis Goodwin; 'Kenneth'; 'Joan'; 'Frank and Joan'; 'Frank'. File also includes a small handful of letters directly to Edith from 'Frank', her sister Inge Goodwin, and her mother-in-law.
List of sales of works, by Edith Simon, bulk: 1979-2000, 2010
Lists noting the date, purchaser, and amount paid. File also includes a list of Edith Simon works in the possession of Inge Goodwin in 2010.
lllustrated colour promotional print by G.P. Putnam's Sons publishers, announcing the US publication of Edith Simon's book, The Golden Hand, 1951
This series contains notebooks, manuscript drafts, typescript drafts, press cuttings, and research notes relating to Edith Simon's various writing projects, encompassing her books, plays, and screenplays, as well as some unrealised works.
The tete-a-beche style is used by Simon in most notebooks, writing from both ends of each volume.
Loose manuscript notes and draft excerpts by Edith Simon, concerning a novel, August 1949 - 10 March 1952
Loose papers of Edith Simon containing gallery flyers, business cards, a film outline, and brief manuscript notes for an unspecified writing project, bulk: 1968, 1999
File includes two pages of manuscript notes possibly pertaining to an unspecified writing project; an outline for a film by Edna Vyner entitled 'Perspectives' or alternatively 'Perceptions'; an informational leaflet for The Scottish Ballet School; two business cards; a glossary for readers of reviews; a flyer for Galerie Balans in Amsterdam; and three flyers for the Corrymella Scott Gallery in Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Loose photographs documenting Edith Simon's family life, 1983-?2003
"Love Me, Scum", a play, ?1960-?1969
Papers consist of notebooks, manuscript and typescript drafts, and research material concerning named plays and screen treatments, alongside more general notes and papers concerning broader ideas and concepts.
Manuscript and typescript notes; a typescript synopsis; and a notebook, by Edith Simon, all concerning the novel, 'The Great Forgery', circa 1957-1958
Notebook also includes illustrations for character studies and possibly costumes.
Manuscript flashcards by Edith Simon concerning notes for an abandoned novel entitled 'An Affair of Love', ?1964-?1966
Notes concern chapter contents, plot timeline, and character studies.
Manuscript notes by Edith Simon concerning a writing project entitled 'Morals & Manners' [later 'The Saints'], 1962-1963
Manuscript notes for a proposed play set in a maternity hospital, 1958
Pages contain a brief plot overview, across three acts, with some draft dialogue and character outlines.
Mounted photograph of Edith Simon as a young woman, bulk: circa 1947
Photograph shows the head and shoulders, in profile, of a young, dark-haired woman, with glasses, earrings, and a bob. Photographer's signature is unclear but may possibly be 'Paul G_'