Ross, The New Yorker and Me Signed by Jane Grant

Journalist Jane Grant was married to Harold Ross, the founding editor of the New Yorker, from 1922 to 1928. This put her at the center of activity at the time of the magazine's first publication in 1925. She was essential in getting Raoul Fleischmann to invest in the fledgling magazine, and she persuaded her friend Janet Flanner to contribute a "Letter from Paris." In 1968, Grant published Ross, The New Yorker and Me—the lack of a serial comma would be frowned upon by the magazine. Flanner contributed the book's introduction. Grant died in 1972 at her home on the White Flower Farm, which she founded with her second husband. She was 80 years old. A signed copy of her memoir was sold on eBay two years ago with a make offer option somewhere under $40.

Signed by Jane Grant

Would you include this photo in your eBay listing?

Jane Grant
eBay Listing Ended December 30, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ross-The-New-Yorker-And-Me-by-Jane-Grant-1968-Signed-First-Edition-HC-DJ-/371807927513?hash=item56917abcd9%3Ag%3AUPIAAOSwImRYE-3d&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Jane Grant
eBay Item Description

December 4, 2021 Update:  Here's a different copy of the book with Jane Grant's full signature:

Note:  The University of Oregon has some interesting biographical material on Jane Grant here.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Harold Ross

Janet Flanner

Attempted Bloggery's Index is not Edited for the Old Lady in Dubuque

02754

Ronald Searle: Cats Under the Rainbow

An Unusual Day is an unusual watercolor by Ronald Searle dating from 1971. The inverted rainbow seems to counter the earthbound bleakness of the landscape, but only partially; it is a restrained, muted rainbow that touches the surface of the globe at only one point. A solitary and disheveled cat bears witness to the state of the urban environment's outskirts.  

Ronald Searle
An Unusual Day, 1971

Ronald Searle
Sotheby's London
A Private View:  Property from the Country Home of Christopher Cone and Stanley J. Seeger
Lot 80, October 30, 2018

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/seeger-cone-collection-l18320/lot.80.html?locale=en

Detail under the rainbow

Detail of cat

Last month this art sold for nearly three times Sotheby's high estimate, a sign of Searle's enduring appeal even when he's making social commentary.

The 1972 lithograph The Long March features another Searle inverted rainbow, this one festive and with a loop de loop, under which are more numerous and happier cats.

Ronald Searle
The Long March, 1972, edition of 99

https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/tmc-healing-art-program/artwork/the-long-march

Searle's 1983 lithograph An Angel Passed... escalates to a knotted rainbow. The signed print was included in the limited edition of Ronald Searle in Perspective. Now, a moment of silence...

Ronald Searle

An Angel Passed..., edition of 250, 1983

Searle's preparatory art for the lithograph is drawn on two attached sheets of paper, with the lines visible below the heads of the two foremost cats. It appears that Searle had started with just the knotted snake and then decided to expand the composition and add the background. If this is correct, the cats, the hills, the rainbow as well as the bicycle were all afterthoughts. The drawing is currently listed with Chris Beetles in London:

Ronald Searle
An Angel Passed...
Preparatory drawing for the lithograph, 1983

Ronald Searle
Chris Beetles Gallery listing retrieved November 27, 2018

https://www.chrisbeetles.com/gallery/animals/cats/angel-passed.html

February 29, 2020 Update:  The Chris Beetles Gallery has recently sold the original of An Angel Passed...

02753

Matías Santoyo's Return

What's old is new again. This week the new New Yorker cover is an old one, reprinted from 1927. The artist is Matías Santoyo and this was his only New Yorker cover. It's a wonderful cover, of course. I just don't see any reason the magazine can't buy new work with this sort of energy. The city remains a vibrant place. The magazine's artists could capture it if the editors weren't so intent on reflecting the Trump Zeitgeist with nearly every cover.

Art editor Françoise Mouly writes, "For the December 3, 2018 issue, we have turned to the archives and reprinted a cover for the first time." That's rubbish, of course. For decades The New Yorker reprinted Rea Irvin's classic first cover featuring the dandy we now call Eustace Tilley for the annual anniversary issue. It was a tradition honored by each of the magazine's art editors until Ms. Mouly. The anniversary issue covers under her tenure have been for the most part well worth forgetting.

Incidentally, The New Yorker cost fifteen cents in 1927. Adjusted for inflation, that's $2.16 in 2017 dollars, not today's $8.99 newsstand price. So if the magazine's cover price seems just a tad on the high side now, that's because it is.

Matías Santoyo
The New Yorker, December 3, 2018

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2018-12-03?mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=tny&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned

Matías Santoyo
The New Yorker, April 2, 1927

Cover Story:  Matías Santoyo's New York Lights Up by Françoise Mouly,
tps://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2018-12-03?mbid=social_twitter&utm_brand=tny&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned

02752

Fred Marcellino's Book Cover for Thomas Pynchon's Slow Learner

Slow Learner is the self-deprecatory title of Thomas Pynchon's 1984 collection of his early short fiction. Fred Marcellino's cover illustration depicts a fountain pen seated on a bicycle. The background is airbrushed with the bicycle added as a collage element. The bicycle appears off center over toward the right to allow the background to wrap around the spine of the the book.

Fred Marcellino
Original art
Slow Learner (1984) by Thomas Pynchon

Fred Marcellino
Swann Galleries January 24, 2013
20th Century Illustration
Sale 2300 Lot 219

First Edition

https://www.secondeditionaustin.com/listing/528007650/first-edition-slow-learner-by-thomas

Note:  Longtime readers may be wondering about the status of my anticipated interview with Thomas Pynchon. I'm still playing hard to get.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: 

Thomas Pynchon

Original Book Cover Art

Attempted Bloggery's Index in Training

02751

Modern Types Book Cover by Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle's original book cover design for Geoffrey Gorer's Modern Types (1955) is meant to make the most of a two-color press. Now Searle was as keen an observer of the British social scene as anyone, but does that make his book cover art worth $11,995? Perhaps not. At least the seller on 1stdibs is realistic enough to entertain lower offers.

Ronald Searle
Modern Types (1955) by Geoffrey Gorer and Ronald Searle
Original book cover art

Ronald Searle
Modern Types (1955) by Geoffrey Gorer and Ronald Searle
Original framed book cover art

Detail

Detail

An earlier sale by Chris Beetles, Ltd.

Ronald Searle
1stdibs Listing Retrieved November 23, 2018

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/wall-decorations/paintings/ronald-searle-painting-modern-types-book-cover/id-f_6562593/

Ronald Searle
1stdibs Item Description

Modern Types (1955) by Geoffrey Gorer and Ronald Searle

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22699381391&searchurl=tn%3Dmodern%2Btypes%26sortby%3D20%26an%3Dgeoffrey%2Bgorer%2Band%2Bronald%2Bsearle&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image19

Note:  Scans of all the illustrations in Modern Types appear on Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog, here.

Does anyone recall how much this artwork sold for at Chris Beetles, Ltd., in 1996?


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: 

Ronald Searle

Original Book Cover Art

Attempted Bloggery's Old-Fashioned Index

02750

Dear Dead Days Book Cover by Charles Addams

Last week's sale at Doyle New York of the original cover illustration to Charles Addams's 1959 collection Dear Dead Days confirms the iconic status original Addams Family art has achieved for collectors. The watercolor which Addams presented as a gift to author Alexander King and his wife Margie came to auction with a pre-sale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. This estimate proved accurate and the piece went for $31,250 with the buyer's premium.

Charles Addams
Doyle New York
Sale 18BP02, Lot 1, November 13, 2018

https://doyle.com/auctions/18bp02-rare-books-autographs-maps/catalogue/1-addams-charles-1912-1988-dear-dead-days

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: 

Charles Addams

The Addams Family

Original Book Cover Art

Attempted Bloggery's Altogether Ooky Index

02749

Turkey Parade: Arnie Levin New Yorker Cover Art

For a 1977 cover of the New Yorker, Arnie Levin imagines the very first Thanksgiving Day parade. A pair of pilgrims and an American Indian review a procession of turkeys. Sometimes the simplest ideas work best.

Four decades later the concept remains fresh, yet the cover can't be said to have aged well. The problem for us today is the red—really more of a pink—skin tone of the native American in the reviewing stand. This depiction very likely would be objectionable to the New Yorker's contemporary editors and readers. Levin carries the pink over into all the turkey heads, while the feathers pick up the browns from the reviewing stand. These colors tie the composition together, but one imagines Levin would choose differently today.

Arnie Levin
Original art
The New Yorker, November 28, 1977

Arnie Levin
Original art
The New Yorker, November 28, 1977

Arnie Levin
Swann Auction Galleries
Illustration Art, Sale 2465, Lot 296, December 14, 2017
Hammer Price $1,700

http://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2465+++++296+&refno=++739688&saletype=

Arnie Levin
The New Yorker, November 28, 1977

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: 

Arnie Levin

Turkeys

Thanksgiving Day

Original New Yorker Cover Art

Attempted Bloggery's Thankful Index

02748