Attempted Bloggery: Aunt Lydia's Copy of The Hokinson Festival

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Aunt Lydia's Copy of The Hokinson Festival

In 1956, seven years after she perished in a plane crash, Helen E. Hokinson's final cartoon collection was published. The Hokinson Festival comprises work from four previous collections, including more than 450 cartoons and four color New Yorker covers. There is a memoir by her New Yorker collaborator James Reid Parker and an appreciation by drama critic John Mason Brown.

James Reid Parker (1909-1984), a short story writer and novelist, entered into a partnership with Hokinson in 1931 and provided splendid captions for her cartoons. After her death, he became the trustee of her estate. He and his wife Ruth gave this copy of The Hokinson Festival to their Aunt Lydia. Parker, who went by the name Reid, wrote the inscription and signed the book on the title page just above the mention of his contribution.

The Hokinson Festival
"The final Hokinson collection—more than 450 cartoons plus four New Yorker
covers in full color—selected by her New Yorker collaborator, James Reid Parker"

"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
from Ruth and Reid to Aunt Lydia.
————
December, 1956."

James Reid Parker's signature

Helen E. Hokinson
eBay Listing Ended August 21, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Hokinson-Festival-1956-Autographed-James-Reid-Parker-Book-Rare-New-Yorker/143580053278?hash=item216e09bf1e:g:Q6cAAOSwym1elTCr

But wait a minute. That price of $29.99 is not the actual selling price. First off, the eBay seller originally listed this volume at $49.99 and automatically refused a Best Offer of $24.99:

Subsequently the seller lowered the price by $20 on August 15.

Then the seller made a special offer on August 21 below the rejected Best Offer, and that's when the book was sold.

So, to be clear, it was the seller's offer of $22.00, and not $29.99, that represents the final selling price. Could eBay possibly have an interest in overstating selling prices on the platform?

Five Hokinson books listed concurrently by the seller

Note: The papers of Helen E. Hokinson and of James Reid Parker are in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University. Go have a look next time you're in New Haven and let me know what you think.

Attempted Bloggery would like to document other books personalized by James Reid Parker or by Helen Hokinson. Or even by Aunt Lydia.

John Mason Brown, who contributed the appreciation of Hokinson's work, may have liked New Yorker cartoons, but he was highly critical of comic books. It was a 1950s thing.