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 Alfred A. Knopf
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The coursing Borzoi has always been our trademark. The first dog was designed by an artist in Barron Collier's organization whose name I have long since forgotten, if indeed I ever knew it. My father had this drawn--he was, at the time we started the business, associated with Collier. As time went on, different people tried their hands at different dogs--Joseph Sinel, Tom Cleland, Kahlil Gibran, Rudolph Ruzicka, Warren Chappell, for example. But Dwiggins drew endless ones--I don't know how many, perhaps fifty. Among my papers I find proof of two running from left to right. On this Dwig had noted: "These hounds are in retreat, heraldically. What scared them?" He had written years before, when he began making his own Borzoi:
About the enclosed drawings: I have had a lot of trouble getting your dog into title pages comfortably. I'd like it very much if Mr. Knopf would send these various versions--all of them--to Ladd and have him make plates of them. Then I would be equipped with a number of styles and "colors" to fit a variety of type feelings.
A neighbor next door has a good specimen of Borzoi, and I have checked my details--head, build, etc.--with that dog. I have used Ruzicka's dog for position and action, so I think the drawings will hit pretty close to what Mr. K. would like. If I have got too far away from what a Dog Show judge would call a good style hound, Mr. K. will tell me and I can refit.
Sincerely,
William Addison Dwiggins
Knopf, Alfred A., "Dwig and the Borzoi." Portrait of a Publisher, 1915-1965: Reminiscences and Reflections by Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
