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:
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1944
File contains letters and cards to Edith from Dennis Goodwin; John Hunt; M. Barber; David Mindline; possibly Olaf Stapledon; Inge Goodwin; possibly Joan Mair; and 'Terry'.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1945
File contains letters from David Mindline discussing his writing; possibly Bella Kaufman; Sgt. Mayer; possibly 'Joan' Mair; and 'Terry'. Letters from Mindline also contain illustrations and newspaper cuttings.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1946
File contains letters to Edith from possibly 'Henry'; 'Leslie'; possibly 'Joan' Mair; David Mindline; Franz Dattner; 'Terry'; and others.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1947
File contains letters from 'Hanna'; possibly Souse Gowing; Walter and Grete Simon; possibly 'Joan' Mair; David Mindline; possibly Rachel Henry; Igna Beth Heiden; 'Terry'; and other unidentified correspondents. One letter from the Simon family features a hand-drawn illustration.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1948
File contains letters from Walter and Grete Simon; possibly Gwen Goodwin; Professor V. Bjerknes; possibly Bianka Feinstein; possibly George Bache; possibly 'Joan' Mair; possibly 'Marjorie' Koolman; 'Katherine'; Inge Goodwin; Igna Beth Heiden; 'Terry'; and possibly 'Frank/Franz'.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, Jan-Jun 1952
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, Jul-Dec 1952
File contains letters from Walter F. Simon and Grete Simon; 'Terry'; Inge and Dennis Goodwin; 'Lisa'; 'Basil' (Ernst Reeve); possibly Cosio Gonzalez; Ruth Lerner; 'Sheila'; possibly 'Joan' McDonald; Frank E. Falk; 'Denise'; Selma Auerbach; 'Lottie'; possibly 'Marjorie' Shewman; Dorothy Bennett; possibly 'Bella' Kaufman; Mrs. Walter B. Griffith; and Inga Beth Heiden.
File also includes news cuttings from Inga Beth Heiden on her ballet design work and husband Heino Heiden.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1953
File contains letters from Walter F. Simon and Grete Simon; Albert King; Inge and Dennis Goodwin; 'Bella, Ellen and Victor', possibly Kaufman; possibly 'Henry, Justin and Leslie'; 'Sheila'; 'Lotte'; Eric Reeve's parents, Irene Vera Gill & William Ernest Reeve; 'Pauline'; Ruth Lerner; 'Joan'; Joan McDonald; 'Marjorie'; 'Peter, Lisa, Stephen'; five letters from Eric Reeve to Edith; Cosio Gonzalez; 'Gwen'; 'Susan'; possibly 'Frank/Franz'; 'Dave'; 'Alek'; and 'Basil' (Ernst Reeve).
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1954
File contains letters from Grete Simon; 'Dave'; Inge Goodwin; 'Susi'; and 'Patricia'.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1955
File contains letters from 'Dave'; Walter F. Simon and Grete Simon; Dennis Goodwin; possibly Helen Gibson; Arthur Simon; Gerda Simon; Ruth Lerner; 'Marjorie and Alex'; Igna Beth Heiden; Igne Goodwin; possibly 'Bella' Kaufman; 'Terry'; David Mindline; 'Dorothy'; possibly 'Edel, Jan and Astrid'; 'Basil' (Ernst Reeve); 'Sheila'; and 'Cilly', possibly Cacile Pelziger.
File also includes a Times newspaper column on the death of Mr. Godfrey Phillips (23 November 1955).
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1956
File contains letters from Minna Falk; Ruth Lerner; 'Joan'; Inge Goodwin; possibly Richard Plant; Eric Reeve's parents, Irene Vera Gill & William Ernest Reeve; Walter F. Simon; 'Sheila'; 'Dorothy'; Richard Mealand; David Mindline, and other unidentified correspondents.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, bulk: [?1950-?1959]
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, 1961-1968
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon, bulk: circa 1966, undated
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve, 1942
File contains letters, postcards, and greeting cards addressed to both Edith and Eric collectively and individually. Correspondents include possibly John Stocks; P.D.F. Murray; 'Dennis' Goodwin; John Coghlan; possibly'Joan' Mair; 'Terry'; Eric Reeve's mother, Irene Vera Gill; and Inge Goodwin. File also contains letters from Eric Reeve to Edith Simon, and one letter from Edith to 'Terry'.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve, 1943
File contains letters addressed to both Edith and Eric individually and collectively. Correspondents include possibly David Mindline; Dennis Goodwin; Inge Goodwin; Igna Beth Heiden; possibly Joan Mair; 'Terry'; and others. File also includes a letter from Edith to 'Terry' and a letter from Walter F. Simon to 'Gerd' concerning Inge's marriage.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve, [?1940-?1949]
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve, 1949
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve, 1950
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve, 1950
File contains letters from Inge Goodwin (née Simon) and her husband Dennis Goodwin.
Family and personal correspondence to Edith Simon and Eric Reeve, 1951
Family ephemera, papers, and photographs of Eric Reeve and Edith Simon, 1914-2008
File entitled "Articles, ideas, projects.", bulk: circa 1969
File contains typescript synopses and outlines for various writing projects including 'Thrilleroyal' [a possible novel/la]; 'Freud'; 'Galatea: Double Bill' (a ballet); 'In the Afternoon' (a play); and 'The Temptress' (a play). File also contains an annotated typescript script for a talk given by Edith Simon on the artist Michelangelo, as part of a series of talks entitled 'Man's Grasp of Things.' Also included is a typescript entitled 'Some ideas from my notebook'.
File entitled as 'Early German Writings of Edith?', ?1931
Two typescript German-language texts entitled 'Streik' and 'Requiem'.
File entitled 'Edith Simon, Shorter Writings', bulk: circa 1958
File contains typescript drafts of various shorter written pieces by Edith Simon. These include 'Our Time: Propaganda and Art'; an untitled piece concerning beauty; Simon's entry essay to the Morley Fashion Award competition 1958/1959; an untitled piece concerning historical fiction; and an article entitled 'On Thomas Mann in Translation.'