Oh, come on. Who doesn't like robots? Still, there may be something apocalyptic about Keith Haring's untitled drawing of men and robots. Both entities, so to speak, are warming themselves by a primitive fire while what conceivably might be radioactive fallout rains down on them.
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| Keith Haring Palm Beach Modern Auctions, December 3, 2022 |
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This week, someone has made first contact in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #836 from the issue of January 30, 2022. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by E. S. Glenn.
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| "Got blue milk?" |
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| "Take me to your leather." "I was looking for more cowbell." |
February 12, 2023 Update: The Finalists
February 20, 2023 Update: I voted for the caption from West Dennis.
February 27, 2023 Update: The Winner
04215
Pardong M'sieur is Ronald Searle's 1965 French language cartoon collection. Most of the drawings are wordless anyway, but the single heading Paris by night was retained in the author's native tongue, perhaps in error. The book was intended, one assumes, to extend Searle's popularity into the French market, bringing that country's readers up to date with a carefully curated selection of his work since 1953, much of it set in and around Paris. It was published by Éditions Denoël, the French house who also published the work of Jean-Jacques Sempé, René Goscinny, Jean-Maurice Bosc, Jules Feiffer, and Tomi Ungerer. I always thought the book was hard to find, but perhaps I was looking on the wrong continent. When a copy turned up on eBay for $35, it suddenly became attainable. My best offer of $25 was rejected by the seller. The seller's counteroffer of $30 was then accepted by me. Essentially, I saved the cost of shipping.
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| Ronald Searle eBay listing accessed December 17, 2022 |
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| Ronald Searle "This book is in very condition..." eBay item description |
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Online booksellers have every opportunity to show potential buyers their wares with informative photographs. No one should ever again need to consider the purchase of a book possessing some unique feature sight unseen. And yet, I keep returning to the theme of books offered in my area of interest with tantalizing written descriptions but no images to provide corroboration. Perhaps it's a question of expense to the book dealer, or of time, or of both. An occasional seller might be trying to conceal an unfortunate detail or even to deceive outright, but for the most part my experiments in buying books blindly—that is, sight unseen—have turned out pretty well.
Sometimes it's a no brainer. When the chance to buy a copy of James Stevenson's The Life, Loves & Laughs of Frank Modell (2013) turned up, I thought it would be a great opportunity to add this privately published book to my library. Frank Modell (1917–2016), of course, was the prolific New Yorker cartoonist with more than 1400 cartoons to his credit in the magazine. He and Stevenson were great friends. Furthermore, the book was said to be signed and inscribed by the author, so I figured it was my lucky day. And with a price of only $14.96 postpaid, it didn't really concern me that the seller couldn't be troubled to post any photos.
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| James Stevenson AbeBooks listing accessed December 24, 2022 |
That's okay—I know how to take photos. Here then is the book, everything one could hope to buy with $14.96 in these inflationary times:
It's a good-looking book, by the way.
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My purchase of a doubly-signed copy of Number One is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions was not informed by an image of the signatures of author Steve Martin and artist Harry Bliss, so it qualifies here as a Sight Unseen post. Nevertheless, those signed copies I had seen generally looked the same, so there wasn't a lot of suspense. The comedian and the cartoonist have been collaborating for a few years now on single panel cartoons which get submitted to The New Yorker. The rejected ones get published in the newspaper panel strip Bliss. The book includes a generous selection of their cartoons.
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| Steve Martin and Harry Bliss AbeBooks listing accessed December 12, 2022 |
This copy has what I believe to be a specially printed signature page signed by both Martin and Bliss prior to its being bound into the book. The number of such signed pages is not known to me, but I suspect it is significant.
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I did not attend the book launch and signing with Ali Solomon on October 27, 2022 at the Corner Bookstore in Manhattan. Instead, I arranged for a copy of I Love(ish) New York City: Tales of City Life to be signed to me in my absence, and the shop even had it delivered. I'm sure it's better to be there in person at the reception, but we all have to make compromises sometime.
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Even sight unseen, it didn't take more than a minute to decide to purchase this one. The book is a first edition of A Child's Guide to Freud (1963) by Louise Armstrong. This copy, selling for $45, is inscribed with an original color sketch by the illustrator, Whitney Darrow, Jr. Yes, please.
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| A Child's Guide to Freud AbeBooks listing accessed January 10, 2023 |
Now let's see what we got:
What do you know? The book's original recipient, Ken McCormick, was the editor in chief of Doubleday and Co. from 1942 to 1971.
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In 1943, Whitney Darrow, Jr., collected his New Yorker work of the prior decade in a collection called "You're Sitting On My Eyelashes." Isabel's copy, whatever her identity, has an original full-page sketch by the cartoonist. It is dated in November of the year of publication. His wife Middy gets in on the fun as well, inscribing the book underneath Darrow's printed drawing of a woman with "Love/ Middy Darrow, Jr." The book was just sold on eBay in November, a full eighty years after the drawing was made.
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| Additionally inscribed "Love/Middy Darrow, Jr." |
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| "Mr. Jackson has contributed most generously to Bundles for Britain." * * * ". . . and, forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live? . . . True or false?" |
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| "As you know, Collins, this national-defense situation has left us a bit shorthanded. Can you ride a bicycle?" |
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| "It's some radio survey, Ma'am. They "Don't look now, but I think we're want to know if you're happy." all set for the evening." |
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| Whitney Darrow, Jr. eBay listing ended November 18, 2022 |
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| Whitney Darrow, Jr. eBay item description |
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| Whitney Darrow, Jr. eBay bid history Just one bid with five seconds to spare |
Note: At this point, I've shown enough of these Whitney Darrow books to make it clear to anybody that I'd like to keep doing this. Help a blogger out by sending your scans and photos of original book sketches by Darrow.
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This week, X marks the spot in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #835 from the issue of January 23, 2022. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Eddie Ward.
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| "Sorry, we're fresh out of rum cake." |
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| "Do you need exact change?" "If you can't find $4.99, please let these nice people through." "We don't serve grog." "Take whatever you want." |
February 4, 2023 Update: The Finalists
February 12, 2023 Update: I voted for the caption from Houston.
February 20, 2023 Update: The Winner
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