Gloria's Copy of The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995

On September 15, 1995, editor Tina Brown threw a launch party for Lee Lorenz's book The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995. Gloria (glorbrue on eBay), then an employee of the magazine, took the opportunity to purchase a copy and have it signed and personalized by a group of artists at the Lincoln Center event.

A minor scorch mark on the book prompted fire-related drawings from cartoonists Jack Ziegler, Danny Shanahan, and Lee Lorenz, plus a fire-quenching comment from Ed Fisher. Roz Chast contributed her own admonitory drawing to the page, while Gretchen Dow Simpson added a wistful inscription.

Meanwhile, Victoria Roberts left a disarmingly poignant emendation to the book's title. Her fanciful bird drawing prompted a mock-angry reaction from Bob Mankoff, who depicted himself packing heat and prepared to shoot. George Booth, positioning himself on the page above the fray, reacted to the gun play and the bird by having a bullet ricochet between his chickens.

Let's take a closer look. The following detail gives a better view of the drawings by Chast and Ziegler, both of which have faded over the intervening years.

Mankoff's enraged gunman has some rudimentary stippling, a hallmark of his style.

Is it a flamingo? A detail of Roberts's bird shows the somewhat meandering neck.

Booth's chickens seem unperturbed by all the action.

Shanahan and Lorenz address the burning issues of the day.

Bidding started on eBay at $250 with a buy-it-now price of $500. One low bid was all it took to seal the deal:

The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995
eBay listing ended February 7, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156036847523?epid=494627&itmmeta=01HV5JC18VPP170KGD6R6Q7PTC&hash=item24548557a3:g:3qUAAOSwMQZlunoq&itmprp

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CjwaSwdB9b2%2BDSDmyzRyQHK5jEJwWeNszrswu4wVDpAeFhEQ9Agx0mE74qIDzX7G1E8jCriIuO8AzT%2BCrd5RsPYvhLo3qHsUeAUraZCGdGBLV5bNqA5tx%2FV5B

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The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995
eBay item description
". . . and two signatures I can't make out. Ed Koren? Bill Hamilton?" Try Ed Fisher and Bob Mankoff.

Note:  Believe it or not, this is the fourteenth copy of this book to appear here on the blog. Many of these copies are from the signing event at Lincoln Center. I'd be pleased to post additional copies of the book signed by New Yorker cartoonists. I would also love to hear from anyone in possession of photographs taken at the event.

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Best Copy: The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs

The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs was published in 2012, a year before the similarly-named feline collection also from Random House. The Brattle Book Shop in Massachusetts has a copy of both "big" books, each signed by several contributors. The cartoonists who signed the Dogs book are Lee Lorenz, Bob Mankoff, Roz Chast, Victoria Roberts and Jules Feiffer. A number of writers also signed alongside their contributions: Roddy Doyle, Ian Frazier, Malcolm Gladwell (who also penned the foreword), Adam Gopnik, Jonathan Lethem, and poet Charles Simic. There must have been a launch party or some in-house celebration for so many signatures to be readily obtained, one would think. The price: $200.

Spot drawing
Otto Soglow

Image added September 2, 2023

The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs
Biblio listing accessed August 5, 2023

https://www.biblio.com/book/big-new-yorker-book-dogs-gladwell/d/1507328807?placement=search_results_list

Note:  "Best Copy" is a new designation for the blog, but I think this multiply-signed copy of The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs fits the bill. As with yesterday's post about The Big New Yorker Book of Cats, this is subjectively the best copy of the Dogs book I've seen, but I acknowledge that others may have seen even better. I hope readers with access to such copies, if materially different from this one, will pass along some images.

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Best Copy: The Big New Yorker Book of Cats

It's not a stretch to call the copy of The Big New Yorker Book of Cats currently listed on Biblio the best one available. Issued by Random House in 2013 with a foreword by Anthony Lane, the book collects New Yorker cartoons, covers, stories, and articles on the subject of cats. This copy is signed by five of the magazine's cartoonists at their cartoons. Bob Mankoff and Roz Chast each sign twice. Lee Lorenz and Edward Koren also add signatures below their respective drawings; Lorenz even adds a comment. Victoria Roberts doesn't technically sign, but she adds a distinctive drawing of a cat which is the highlight of the book.

Such books aren't terribly common. Obtaining the signatures on different pages usually requires a lot of diligence on the part of a collector. This copy possibly may have been brought from cartoonist to cartoonist individually at an event, or it may have been brought to a number of events. It doesn't look like the typical product of a book signing. It is hands down the best copy of the book on this blog. It is also the only copy on this blog. 

The Big New Yorker Book of Cats
Biblio listing accessed August 4, 2023

https://www.biblio.com/book/big-new-yorker-book-cats-lane/d/1507327790?placement=search_results_list

The Big New Yorker Book of Cats
Biblio item description

Note:  Today, this is the best copy of the book I know of, but that doesn't mean there isn't a better one somewhere. If you have access to such a copy, I would love to see some scans of it.

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #814

I'm afraid I phoned in my work for The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #814 from the issue of August 15, 2022. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Victoria Roberts.

"We're finally due for an upgrade."

These captions broke up in transmission:

"I just realized I don't need directions."
"I lost my directions. Where are you?"
"I'm lost."
"No, my cell phone's not here either."

August 22, 2022 Update:  The Finalists

September 3, 2022 Update:  I voted for the caption from Seattle. 

September 5, 2022 Update:  The Winner

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Kiribi's Copy of The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons

There are two distinct editions of The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons. The first was published on November 1, 1999 at $21.95. It has an introduction by humorist Christopher Buckley. The revised and updated edition was published in 2012 at $22.95—that's not even inflationary because there are twenty-one more cartoons—with an introduction by cartoonist David Sipress. Both editions are edited by Robert Mankoff, who doesn't always go by the name Bob.

Kiribi's copy is from the original edition, the one with the cover by Michael Witte. Whatever signing event there was presumably occurred back in 1999 or possibly 2000 as part of the book launch publicity. The four cartoonists present were Liza Donnelly, Arnie Levin, Victoria Roberts, and Danny Shanahan. All four added original drawings at the signing; two of these are inspired by the book's subject matter.

Cover by Michael Witte

Signed by Arnie Levin, Victoria Roberts, Liza Donnelly, and Danny Shanahan
Dust jacket flap cartoon by Dean Vietor

Cover art by Michael Witte and Chad Covert Darbyshire

Back cover cartoons by Roz Chast and Barbara Smaller

Cartoonist David Sipress, whose work did not appear at all in the first edition—he was quite new to the magazine then—had two cartoons included in the revised and updated one, to which he wrote the introduction. He signed a copy of the book, not Kiribi's, at an unknown promotion likely circa 2012.

David Sipress's signature

The indices of artists in these two editions differ somewhat with good reason. The first edition has 110 cartoons and the revised and updated edition has 131. The first twenty-five pages of cartoons in the revised and updated edition are new here. Then the drawing by Lee Lorenz from page 1 of the 1999 edition appears on page 26 of the new edition, and from there the cartoons follow the sequence of the first edition. Four drawings that were in the first edition have been dropped: Michael Crawford's on page 65 (perhaps the Microsoft millionaires reference was thought to be less timely), two by Richard Cline on pages 16 and 78 (for whatever reason), and one by Lee Lorenz from the very last page (see the Monopoly money gag, below) who also had a different cartoon added to the very first page of the new edition. It's the circle of life.

Similar revised and updated editions were published for The New Yorker Book of Baseball Cartoons, The New Yorker Book of Teacher Cartoons, and The New Yorker Book of Golf Cartoons. Collect them all.

Note:  Docnad's conjecture is that if something, however rare, happened to a book once, it probably happened more than once. Thus any rare volume very likely exists in several variations. For example, a copy of The New Yorker Book of Money Cartoons obligingly signed and decorated by four New Yorker cartoonists is probably not the only one out there signed by these four. (The conjecture, of course, may be expanded to include countless other groupings of New Yorker cartoonists signing myriad other Cartoon Bank collections.) The beauty of the conjecture is that it cannot easily be disproven; the nonexistence of a similar book is generally unknowable. All it takes to prove the conjecture, though, is for an enterprising individual to read this post, take a similarly signed and decorated book down off the shelf, scan or photograph the relevant page or two of original art, and forward it to this philosophizing blogger. It should really all be so simple.

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James Stevenson's Copy of The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995

According to eBay seller dc467 of Paramus, a very nicely signed copy of The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995 by Lee Lorenz that belonged to cartoonist James Stevenson (1929-2017) was obtained from his estate. The seller suggests the volume was "presented to" Stevenson, raising the question of whether he himself attended the book launch party at 70 Lincoln Center Plaza. Stevenson doesn't seem to have signed anybody else's book there, so it's unclear whether he was or was not actually present.

In July, the seller first offered this book for $599.99. It's an unusually high price even for a copy signed by multiple cartoonists, but the volume does come with a great provenance. The truth is, there is no absolute evidence in the book that it belonged to Stevenson, but a lot of the cartoonists addressed him as Jim and seemed familiar enough with him, so there is really no reason to doubt he was the owner. Furthermore, there are apparent inside jokes from Roz Chast, Edward Koren, Victoria Roberts, and Robert Weber, two of them referring to his hair, perhaps his facial hair. A surprising number of the cartoonists signed not on the front endpapers, as seen in several other copies, but on pages in the book alongside their individual printed cartoons. On the downside, there are not enough original drawings here; the two by George Booth and Danny Shanahan are absolute highlights of the book. 

The seller, dc467, did not accept sequential offers and counteroffers of $200, $225, and $250. Eventually, though, dc lowered the book's asking price to $350 and in late December, apparently despairing of another opportunity to sell it before Christmas, accepted a best offer of $280.

James Stevenson
eBay listing ended December 20, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203522461051?epid=0&hash=item2f62e24d7b:g:KtgAAOSwYOdg60HN

Robert Weber actually wrote, "To Tom—Jim said that I loved your sculptures, too. Robert Weber."
The unidentified signature on the back endpaper belongs to George Plimpton.
James Stevenson
eBay item description

Sold for best offer of $280

"To Jim
Very best wishes
George Plimpton"

Included is Stevenson's clipping of Ben Yagoda's review of The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995 in the Times Book Review. I posted this five years ago without the Thurber drawing, so here it is again, this time complete:

Note:  Believe it or not, this is the eleventh unique copy of this book to appear here on the blog and the second originally belonging to a New Yorker cartoonist. I still have two more copies on deck, but I'm sure there are far more worth posting. 

So here's the deal, in a nutshell: You scour your personal library, or a friend's library, for a copy of this book, or really of any book, with at the very least an original drawing or inscription by a New Yorker artist, take scans of photos of the critical pages, and forward such to me. I do the rest, and soon interested parties everywhere get to see and enjoy your images.

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