Autograph Letter Signed

Whitman Publishing Company's local "go to" artist and illustrator is credited with many of this Racine, Wisconsin's colorful kid's books of the 1920s, such as "Conqueror of the Sea" (1924), "Stories Told at Bedtime" (1925), "Tabby Cat and Kitty Cat Make Friends with Billy the Goat" (1925), "Charles Dickens' The Story of Tiny Tim" (1926), "The Cozy Book of Mother Goose" (1926), "The Nightingale from Far-a-Way China" (1926), "The Children's Story of David Copperfield" (1926), "The Story of Peter & Prue" (1928) -- and his own book "The Birds We know: Color paintings by Ray Gleason" (1928). ALS, 2pp (separate leaves), 8½" X 11", Racine, WI, 12 April 1933. Addressed to John G. Leiser. Near fine. On bright yellow onionskin-type paper penned in vibrant purple ink, Gleason writes this admirer, an Illinois school teacher, with advice about studying and painting birds. In part: "I am happy to hear that you love to study birds and that you have a nature study class. To me, the study is a great source of pleasure. I try to see in the study of birds symbols of the wonders of all nature. I try to bring thru their study a harmonious relation of the contradictory elements of experience. Hence my preoccupation is with the physical reality of my medium, color and drawing, thru the character of the motive I try to proportion into pleasurable relations the color with the various forms and in harmony with associations we thru common experience, bring to it. Probably nothing delights the eye o man more than a beautiful bird, and for the past several years I have found great pleasure in going out early in the morning sketching birds. In order to paint any particular bird one must first study for size, proportion, character, color, etc...." Goes into much further detail on painting birds, noting near the close "I have only one book published known as 'Birds We Know" and signing boldly. With original envelope, addressed in Gleason's hand and signed again by him. Superb, meaty content for the bird artist aficionado.