Under what circumstances were Paul H. R. M. Elliott-Smith's copy of A Golden Trashery of MAD (1960) signed in 1981 by publisher William M. Gaines, Al Feldstein, Nick Meglin, and a clutch of "the usual gang of idiots?" Was this hard-to-find book brought to a signing event or simply to the New York offices of MAD? Elliott-Smith (1919-1999) was a marketing and economics consultant, according to the sales listings below. He would have been around 62 in 1981, certainly not the typical age for a MAD fanboy. But at that age he could well have been retiring from whatever sort of consulting he did for EC, and the drawing by Paul Peter Porges on the lower right has a "Good-By'" that suggests this may have been the case. In this context, the book might have been a presentation copy prepared in advance and given to Elliott-Smith, which would explain why Gaines wrote "Free Sample!" The unique book is being offered for $1,000 on AbeBooks, or you can have it for just $900 on eBay. Hey, it's your money.
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A Golden Trashery of MAD
New York: Crown, 1960
Cover by Norman Mingo |
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| Twelve signatures, eight sketches |
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| George Woodbridge |
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| Jack Rickard takes the real estate under the dust jacket flap and makes the most elaborate drawing. |
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Inscribed "Free Sample!
Bill Gaines" |
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| Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Al Feldstein |
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| Lou Silverstone, Dick DeBartolo, Paul Peter Porges |
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| Sergio Aragonés |
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| Bob Clarke, Nick Meglin |
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| Introduction by Sid Caesar |
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A Golden Trashery of MAD
eBay Listing Retrieved October 16, 2018
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A Golden Trashery of MAD
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved October 16, 2018
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Note: It should come as no surprise that this is the first and only copy of A Golden Trashery of MAD to appear on this blog. I am, of course, open to showing other MAD books here, particularly if they have interesting inscriptions or original drawings.
Today I broke with my internalized style book and capitalized all three letters of MAD even though I know better. For some reason it felt right. Shouldn't I stick with the lower-key Mad?
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