Maurice Sendak: Madama Butterfly Poster

Illustrator Maurice Sendak's poster for the Houston Grand Opera's 1997-1998 season, their forty-third, features an image from Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Cio-Cio-San is seen from behind near the end of the third act. Her gesture indicates agitation as Dolore, her love child by U.S. Naval Lieutenant Pinkerton, waves the stars and stripes she has just given him as a final farewell.

Detail of upper half

Detail of lower half

Maurice Sendak's signature

A signed example is available from Blank Verso Books of Napa, California. It is priced at $300. It's possible the HGO production may have been called Madame Butterfly.

Maurice Sendak
AbeBooks listing accessed October 16, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/MAURICE-SENDAK-SIGNED-POSTER-MADAME-BUTTERFLY/32013284023/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Maurice Sendak
AbeBooks item description details

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The CartoonStock Cartoon Caption Contest No. 185

In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 185, two upright fish visit an art gallery. The exhibition consists of various images of fish hooks.

The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed (and neither has my description of them): Five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $150 into the first thirty pay-to-play contests and this thirty-first challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $155. Having achieved runner-up status with two previous entries, I've collected $200 from CartoonStock, so I'm still playing with the house's money, thank goodness. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds may generally be considered favorable even for us less-gifted caption writers. My three entries are shown below, above the break. The cartoonist is Chris Gural.

"The artist is trying to bait us."
"The artist died researching his next painting."
"Great art is supposed to make you uncomfortable."
* * *
"Let's break for a snack."
"Sure it's provocative, but is it art?"

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #917

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #917 from the issue of October 14, 2024, a beaver gnaws at a Greek column and makes a remark to another beaver. My submission is shown below. The classical drawing is by Mads Horwath.

"Please stop calling it 'iconic.'"

These captions didn't go down smoothly:

"Worst. Tree. Ever."
"Don't tell ME it isn't petrified."
"If you won't pitch in, I'm going to need some dental work."

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The Autograph Collection of Neil Walden

Neil Walden's collection of autographs was sold in London on September 15. The subjects were "artists, fashion designers and cartoonists," to quote the enumeration of Chiswick Auctions. Nevertheless, the cartoonists predominate here. Clearly, Walden was interested in creative visual artists. It would be interesting therefore to know if this Neil Walden of Yately is the writer of that name.

Autographs
Chiswick Auctions listing of September 15, 2024

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/185570400_autograph-collection-artists-fashion-designers-and-cartoonists?from=alert&utm_source=SavedAlert&utm_campaign=SearchAlert_20230912_A&utm_medium=email&utm_content=itemendingsoon

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Robert Day: What Would Cagney Do?

An original New Yorker drawing by cartoonist Robert Day (1900-1985) was presented by the artist to actor James Cagney (1899-1986), for whom it must have held special significance. It was given as a Christmas gift, probably in 1956, which was the year of the cartoon's publication. Day and his wife, "Rob & Buffie," were evidently on a first name basis with Cagney, whose surname alone back then would have identified him to much of the world. The artwork was sold by Doyle in 2000 at the Cagney Auction.

"I just asked myself what Cagney would have done if he were in my place, and here I am."
Robert Day
Original art
The New Yorker, December 8, 1956, p. 50

Robert Day
Doyle:  The Cagney Auction, september 27, 2000, lot 144

https://www.doyle.com/auction/lot/lot-144---robert-day-american-b-1900-i-just-asked/?lot=791977&so=4&st=Yorker&sto=0&au=&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=1&pp=96&pn=2&g=1

"I just asked myself what Cagney would have done if he were in my place, and here I am."
Robert Day
The New Yorker, December 8, 1956, p. 50

"I just asked myself what Cagney would have done if he were in my place, and here I am."
Robert Day
Original art
The New Yorker, December 8, 1956, p. 50

With a cartoon by Robert Day and a spot drawing by Arthur Getz

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1956-12-08/flipbook/050/

Mail call!

Arthur Getz
Spot drawing
The New Yorker, December 8, 1956, p. 51

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John Cheever's The National Pastime, Limited Edition

The National Pastime is John Cheever's reminiscence about baseball and family. It was published in The New Yorker issue of September 26, 1953. In 1982 the piece was published in hardcover as a limited edition. Copy 272 of 330 was recently sold on eBay.

John Cheever
eBay listing ended September 1, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155867712770_skw=signed+Yorker&itmmeta=01J9T2QP6CF36KWP5C5R7QTSKT&hash=item244a708d02:g:KwcAAOSwvXhlRWhe&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKm%2F0xIV%2B0vYkz2g%2BoUDsEY3XdQv8YbXo0lBD7A%2FazMXsp2VJ51XN0Xh1Umo%2Bgy9L0%2BpYidyoxntqNr9tulgLFq8ak

X4RtIQXpDwNgm%2FDrJBV2tdia6nHofnjQu6jaRiQX7DVSO2zXBBYJ3XRUOzqvAdxPSrP5ZSTF3t18SvBHZiDwV7ZGCwPTQMoof1dYNvJ2mSni70Ib8SFjww2FOYaiZOIku%2FEWP4Ws%2BfffR50NP4ZSXlCNhnR%2F2%2BPr7wC5ghmkgsfM42g8s4u395YZcNECvkXBdTiZy7QH3UqZVr%2FY%2BFpA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6Lj3sLOZA

John Cheever

eBay item description

Note:  The cover illustration is by Vance Gerry, who signed the artwork VG. 

Thanks to David from Manhattan for making the identification.

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Russ and Ada's Copy of Black Maria by Charles Addams

In 1960 when Charles Addams published the cartoon collection Black Maria, Uncle Fester was an as yet unnamed member of the Addams Family which, come to think of it, was also as yet unnamed. Not to worry—everyone would have a name by the time the 1964 television series was aired. The book's dust cover shows the ghoulish family as they are discovered enjoying a ride in a police van, also called a paddy wagon, also called a Black Maria.

Russ and Ada's copy, a first printing, was inscribed by the artist in New York in the year of publication. Addams inscribed it only to Russ. Ann and Wright, who presented the book as a gift, added Ada's name in a shaky hand meant to look like Addams's.

Fester meanwhile is lurking in the corner of the front free endpaper not quite undercover wearing an OSS cap. He clutches a dagger beneath his cloak, as one does.

The copyright page shows how important The New Yorker was to Addams, publishing the bulk of his work.

Charles Addams
AbeBooks listing acessed October 8, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=32006452903&searchurl=an%3DCharles%2BAddams%26ds%3D30%26rollup%3Don%26sortby%3D1%26tn%3DBlack%2BMaria&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp0-_-title1

Note:  This book is available from a Chicago bookseller at the time of posting. Most such books are nestled in private collections and come to the market maybe once in a generation. Of course, I'm happy to showcase important books personalized by Charles Addams even when they're not yet for sale. All I ask is for book collectors to send scans or photos of such Addams treasures along with whatever story they may know. Please send them by police van.

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Burt Britton's Copy of Instant Lives by Howard Moss With Drawings by Edward Gorey

Sometimes everything just comes together. David from Manhattan read my Saturday post about a rare copy of Phantasmagorey that was both signed and inscribed by the illustrator Edward Gorey. I had noted that it was the first inscribed Gorey book to appear on the blog and that as such it was no doubt scarce. David writes:

I must admit I hadn't thought of a Gorey book inscription as being rare, and if you had held a gun to my head, I couldn't tell you if the one signed Gorey book I own was inscribed. But it turns out it is, and to Burt Britton, book collector, dealer and celebrity portrait collector extraordinaire. Instant Lives by Howard Moss is a unique collection of humorous "essays" and "fictions" about various famous authors, artists, composers and performers with wittily staged mini biographies and the occasional parody. Gorey contributed 25 drawings and designed the front & back covers, the latter being nothing more than a wreath which floated from the front cover and might be Edward Gorey's most extreme example of minimalism in his drawings. There is no suggestion that Mr. Britton ever opened the book, other than to drop in the printed slips, a selling point that James Cummin's catalog listing chose not to mention, though it persuaded me to part with $125. I never met or caught a glimpse of Gorey, but I once had a casual deli meal with Howard Moss, poetry editor of The New Yorker, and a wonderful poet himself, when I was in college, and coincidentally a few weeks after Instant Lives was published.

Note:  My thanks to David from Manhattan for his years of reading my musings and so thoughtfully responding to them. The scans here are all his, of course. This is David's sixtieth contribution to this blog! The rest of you are just slackers.

I myself glimpsed Edward Gorey once or twice at the New York City Ballet but I never approached him. Furthermore, I never had deli with Howard Moss.

04764

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #916

In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #916 from the issue of October 7, 2024, a couple looks out at the sea and something looks back. My submission is shown below. The atmospheric drawing is by Christopher Weyant.

"I sure hope he's setting."

These captions weren't picture perfect:

"Something out there is festering."
"You promised me seclusion."
"Are you sure it's not the Webb Telescope?"
"Now we can't even enjoy sunsets."
"But what if we're not just paranoid?"
"I told you never to accept cookies."
"That is most definitely not the CIA."
"No, not Kilroy. It's Big Brother."

04763

A Signed Copy of E. D. Ward: A Mercurial Bear by Edward Gorey

E. D. Ward:  A Mercurial Bear was published in 1983 by Gotham Book Mart and its sixteen pages were bound with side staples. It was signed by the author Dogear Wryde, whom readers will recognize as one of Edward Gorey's anagrammatic pseudonyms. Now where did he come up with the bear's name?

Edward Gorey
Reilly Books listing accessed October 6, 2024

https://www.reillybookshop.com/shop/p/edward-gorey-a-mercurial-bear-signed

04762