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For those who remember my earlier post about the Czech artist Tavik Franti�ek �imon , I thought I would flag up a new book of interest, the first English translation of his Letters from a Voyage Around the World . This lively book was first published in Czech in 1928 but has been essentially unobtainable since. The translation is by David Pearson, with an introduction by the artist's grandson Michal Simon. I have an etching to share of a scene from Tavik Frantisek Simon's adventurous world trip, depicting beggars in Shanghai; it was published by the art revue Byblis in 1928. Tavik Frantisek Simon, Au quartier Chinois (Chinese beggars, Shanghai) Etching, 1928 Ref: Novak 480 For more information on the artist see the excellent Tavik Simon website here . This model of a single-artist website contains among much else a good selection of the drawings made by Simon on his travels in 1926 and 1927. The website for Letters from a Voyage Around the World is http://taviksimon.com , and

Just over a century ago, on 08/08/08, at 18:25 hours, Wilbur Wright made the first public flight anywhere in the world. It was not in the USA, but in France, at the Hippodrome des Hunaudi�res at Le Mans, within easy reach of Paris. Over the next five months Wright made another nine exhibition flights at the same location, in a Flyer III bi-plane with a Barriquand-Marse motor.          I imagine newspapers at the time published cartoon sketches of these exciting displays (though I haven�t seen any). But who was the first fine artist to record this extraordinary breakthrough for mankind? My guess is the Czech painter and printmaker Tavik Franti�ek �imon (1877-1942).          �imon was born at �eleznice in Bohemia. He studied at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, where he was in 1928 appointed as Professor of Graphic Arts, a position he took over from his friend Max �vabinsk�.          Franti�ek �imon lived and worked in Paris from 1904 to 1914, when the outbreak of WWII caused him to retu