[Christopher Fry edits and contributes to] Seven numbers of 'Springboard | The Barnardo Magazine for Schools'

Seven volumes, the first three in 4to, the last four small 4to, ranging in length from 32pp to 44pp. Each stapled into coloured printed wraps, the first six carrying a stylised drawing of a boy doing a jump (from a springboard). In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper, with rusted staples. Each volume is filled with prose, poetry, illustration and photographs by a number of different contributors, including pieces taken from public school magazines. The only unattributed items are the book reviews, which are clearly the work of Fry himself. Of particular interest, given Fry's subsequent career, is the full-page review (Vol.1 No.5) of Auden and Isherwood's 'The Ascent of F6', beginning: 'It may be that the history of poetic drama is repeating itself, that we are back at the morality play, a reaction to the play of immorality of the last decade, and that eventually the new Elizabethans will put poetry on a commercial footing. The central figure is no longer God or Religion, but Politics and the Happy Band of Brothers; the source of inspiration is not the Bible or the Church, but the Amalgamated Press, Ltd., T. S. Eliot and the Dailies.' The previous number (Vol.1 No.4) contains a long review of T. S. Eliot's 'Collected Poems'. Vol.3 No. 1 and Vol.3 No.3 both contain a twelve-page section titled 'The Barnardo Bulletins', including articles, with photographs, including 'Evacuation' by 'Eye-Witness', 'The William Baker Technical School' (two parts), 'The Barnardo Farm School', 'Essays by Barnardo Boys', 'Reminiscences of an Old Boy' by O. L. Siebold (parts 1 and 3); 'The Children in the Streets' by Donald Fitzjohn ('With Original Photos by the Author'). Vol.1. No.2 contains on its first page 'A new Poem by EDMUND BLUNDEN', titled 'A Town I know', as well as the poem 'Europe' by Robert Gittings. Loosely-inserted in the same volume is an attractive 8vo bifolium advertisement ('For Barnardo's | Be a Pal and lend a hand'), with an illustration of Father Christmas in green and black on the front cover, and a double page illustration of a Christmas Tree in full colour covering the central two pages. Vol.3 No.3 carries a label printed in red affixed to the front cover, reflecting its production during wartime: 'We are glad to announce that “Springboard” is to be re-issued, as a supply of paper has now been secured.' Fry's entry in the Oxford DNB makes no mention of his association with Barnardo's. The only entry for this title on OCLC WorldCat or on COPAC is what appears to be a complete run at the British Library, from Vol. 1 No. 1 (Summer 1935) to Vol. 3 No. 7 (Summer 1942). From Christopher Fry's library.