Adler, [Samuel?]. “And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year...”, [circa 1940-1949]

Text from M.L Haskins. Signed Adler. Ink on paper. 7 x 5 inches, text 5 1/8 x 3 1/4. Calligraphy quote, first stanza of poem “God Knows.” Published in 1908, “God Knows” by Minnie Louise Haskins was part of a collection titled The Desert. It caught the public attention when the then-Princess Elizabeth handed a copy to her father, King George VI, and he quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast. “God Knows” was widely acclaimed as inspirational, reaching its first mass audience in the early days of the Second World War. Fran’s acquisition of “God Knows” may suggest an emerging interest in calligraphy. On verso: “When I was in the WAVES between Sept. 1943 and February 1946, I visited a shop in Washington, D.C., run by a man named ‘Adler’, I think ‘Samuel Adler’. He did printing & engraving & was skillful with the broad pen. He demonstrated it to Janet Mac Kenzie (my bunkmate) & me & we had him design a die for engraving our stationary based on our sigs. I lost this (the die) somewhere, and I have one sheet of the stationery that had been printed (engraved) with it. I would like to have Siegals see if they could replicate this. I bought two of his works – this small version & a larger one for Jack (or mother). Where is the other one. I knew good work before I studied about it under GI Bill. F. Manola.”