Attempted Bloggery: "Honesty is One of the Better Policies"

Showing posts with label "Honesty is One of the Better Policies". Show all posts

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Alice and John McClelland's Copy of Charles Saxon's "Honesty is One of the Better Policies"

In 1984 artist Alice McClelland (1921-2009) and her husband illustrator John H. McClelland (1919-2016) were given a personalized copy of New Yorker cartoonist Charles Saxon's new collection "Honesty is One of the Better Policies": Saxon's World of Business. Saxon signed and inscribed their copy and included an atmospheric sketch of the couple standing upright in a boat in "one of those Spanish moss Indian islands down south." The gift inscription seems to be a heartfelt parting gesture to the McClellands as they relocated to the Savannah, Georgia area.

Charles Saxon
"Honesty is One of the Better Policies": Saxon's World of Business
New York: The Viking Press, 1984

Back cover

Inscribed "For Alice and John [McClelland]
leaving for one of those
Spanish moss indian
islands down south
and leaving us bereft.
Much love to
you both.
Chuck
Saxon
3/84"

Chuck Saxon's signature

Charles Saxon
eBay Listing Ended February 10, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HONESTY-IS-ONE-OF-THE-BETTER-POLICIES-By-Charles-David-Saxon-HC-Autographed-/223269325413?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

Charles Saxon
eBay Item Description

Best offer of $40 accepted

Note: This is the first time anywhere I've seen a book with an original sketch by Charles Saxon (1920-1988). There simply have to be more examples in circulation somewhere. Readers with access to any such book embellished with an original Saxon drawing should send scans or photos this way for potential inclusion in a future blog post.

03142

Monday, September 29, 2014

Charles Saxon: The Decline and Fall of the All-Male Business Club

Cartoonist Charles Saxon (1920-1988) chronicled the tumultuous social changes of his time as seen through the eyes of upper-class suburbanites. What better way of understanding the fear and anxiety caused by the admission of women to gentlemen-only clubs than this delightful drawing. Men may share their domestic lives with women, but the business club is another matter entirely! Men, after all, must retain their privileges.

At the left, four pleasant and well-dressed women enter triumphantly but fairly benignly. The four men react to their presence in the extreme, one elderly man teetering dangerously on the library ladder, while the other three on the right cower behind their upholstered leather chairs. This marked contrast in attitude provides the humor. The room, as always, is well-appointed and rendered convincingly by Saxon with great sureness of hand, The depth of the space is palpable. He makes it all look so easy. It isn't.

The drawing was first published in the magazine New England Business. In 1984, it was collected in Charles Saxon's anthology "Honesty is One of the Better Policies" in a section called Women at the Top accompanied by two drawings published in the New York Times. Its title is The Decline and Fall of the All-Male Business Club.

The eBay seller notes that "Saxon's art sells very week [sic] at auction houses," which I'm going to assume means "very well." For once, a seller who says, "My price is very reasonable" is telling the truth. But the seller did not get his "reasonable" price. This lovely piece was sold last year for a best offer of less than $325.

Charles Saxon
The Decline and Fall of the All-Male Business Club
New England Business magazine,
"Honesty is One of the Better Policies" (1984), pp. 26-27