A Jean-Jacques Sempé Poster for Galerie Seder 1970

It is computed, that eleven thousand persons have, at several times, suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.

—Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels, 1726

Part 1 "A Voyage to Lilliput," Chapter 4

J. J. Grandville, 1838

http://classics-illustrated.com/gulliver/lillone.html

Jonathan Swift's deft satire, with Big-Endians and Little-Endians caught up in an insurmountable political conflict over at which end one should break an egg, reflects the real-world polarization between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The passage from Gulliver's Travels was unexpectedly brought to mind recently by consideration of Jean-Jacques Sempé's 1970 poster for an exhibition at Galerie Seder. The cartoon image therein presents an allegory of our tendency to inflate minor conflicts into total warfare. The two different variations on the French tricolor, one vertical and one horizontal, are a nice touch, seemingly trivial differences in banners for people to rally behind.

It's baffling that a Sempé exhibition even in 1970 would last only 15 days. It's difficult to fathom as well that at auction last month the hard-to-find poster would fail to find a buyer. But it's coming back to the auction block later this month for another try.

Jean-Jacques Sempé
Exhibition Poster for Galerie Seder, November 5-20, 1970

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/sempe-galerie-seder-1970-7b440b7806

A direct cultural descendent of Swift, if not of Sempé, is Dr. Seuss's Butter Battle Book published in 1984. Thank goodness we Americans also had a way to learn of the dangers of polarization. Now if only we had paid attention.

Then my grandfather said,
“It’s high time that you knew
of the terribly horrible thing that Zooks do.
In every Zook house and in every Zook town
every Zook eats his bread
with the butter side down![”]

—Dr. Seuss

The Butter Battle Book, 1984

Dr. Seuss
The Butter Battle Book (1984)

http://www.mrtredinnick.com/uploads/7/2/1/5/7215292/butter_battle_show_pptx.pdf

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Jean-Jacques Sempé

Dr. Seuss

Posters

Attempted Bloggery's Conflict-Resolving Index

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Isabel Russell's Copy of The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

E. B. White was born one-hundred twenty years ago today on July 11, 1899. The Trumpet of the Swan, the last of his great trio of children's books, will turn fifty next year. Isabel Russell worked as secretary to White and his wife Katharine in Maine in the 1970s. In 1988, three years after White's death (Katherine had passed away in 1977), Russell published a memoir about the literary couple:

The Trumpet of the Swan dates from 1970, the year Russell began her work for the Whites. Her copy of the book is inscribed by White in the year of publication and is accompanied by a real rarity: an original published book illustration by White himself! New Yorker cartoonist Edward Frascino provided all the drawings in The Trumpet of the Swan save this one by White which appears on page 5 of the book. White, one of the talented writers who helped establish the fledgling New Yorker's towering reputation, occasionally dabbled in illustration. Nearly forty years earlier in 1932, White had published a single New Yorker cover:

His illustration in pencil for his own book isn't quite so fanciful or accomplished. The swan's neck and body don't seem to articulate quite right, for example. Still, out of respect for White's outstanding literary gifts, which included as keen an observation of nature as one could hope for, I think we should give him a pass.

E. B. White
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved July 10, 2019

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22189182459&searchurl=kn%3D%2522E.%2BB.%2BWhite%2522%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image3

Note:  My personal childhood reading included E. B. White's Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. I did not read The Trumpet of the Swan.


More Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

E. B. White

Edward Frascino

Attempted Bloggery's Index

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Dogsbodies Signed by Ralph Steadman, Part 2

Rooke Books of Bath offers a signed copy of Dogsbodies (1970) by the irrepressible Ralph Steadman. The book is signed to Jane, possibly a publisher, and is further embellished with an illustration of a...of a...well, never mind!

Ralph Steadman, Dogsbodies, 1970

Inscribed "To Jane/[Dogs]ear publishes[?]/from Ralph Steadman/XX."
with a drawing of flatus—"Bang."

Rooke Books Online Listing, September 25, 2016

http://www.rookebooks.com/product?prod_id=28536

As long as we're on the subject and since you really deserve to know, here is Fart Check from The Ralph Steadman Book of Dogs.

Ralph Steadman, Fart Check
The Ralph Steadman Book of Dogs, 2011

http://prints.ralphsteadmanshop.com/image/1132789/ralph-steadman-fart-check

Note:  I'm winding down my short series on Ralph Steadman. Now that I've got the last word on Steadman and dog farts, there really isn't much left for me to do...

"A Retrospective:  Ralph Steadman" is in town at the Society of Illustrators. Through October 22.

Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Ralph Steadman

Dogs

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Doggerel Index

01978

Dogsbodies Signed by Ralph Steadman

Two weeks ago at the Society of Illustrators, Ralph Steadman signed a copy of Dogsbodies (1970) to illustrator Stephen Kroninger, adding a sketch of—wait for it—a dog. Mr. Kroninger has generously provided Attempted Bloggery with the essential documentation:

Ralph Steadman, Dogsbodies, 1970

Inscribed "For Stephen! from Ralph Steadman" with a sketch of a dog

O.P. is bookseller shorthand for Out of Print. This secondhand copy is now one of the most desirable copies of Dogsbodies on the planet.

The line emanating from the dog's hind leg has been added by hand, as have the splotches. I know, right?

Handshake

Note:  Thanks again to Stephen Kroninger for sharing his unique book and for being a friend to this blogger. Learn more about Mr. Kroninger's artwork at stephenkroninger.com. His photocollages have been exhibited at MoMA. Impressive, right?

I'm just about finishing up my little run of Ralph Steadman posts, which consists mostly of signed books with original sketches. If you've got something more you'd like to share here—original artwork, sketches, rarities, random ink splotches, what have you—by all means pass it along. I'll get to it some day...

"A Retrospective:  Ralph Steadman" is showing at the Society of Illustrators. Get to it by October 22.

Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Ralph Steadman

Stephen Kroninger

Dogs

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Attempted Bloggery's Dogged Index

01977

Ronald Searle Roller Skater

Right now there's a lot of interest in the reportage work of Ronald Searle. An exhibition of the artist's original illustrations for Holiday magazine and for the American market in general is slated to open this November in San Francisco and should be brilliant. To help raise funds for this project, including shipping vintage Searle illustrations to San Francisco and producing an exhibition catalogue, many prominent animators have contributed original works of art inspired by Searle. There are currently multiple such works listed on eBay as well as a couple of German fountain pens that belonged to Searle himself and were donated to the auction by his estate.

There was, of course, a whimsical side to Searle's artwork as well. For example, this lithograph of an uninhibited roller skater is from the 1970 suite Meilleurs Voeux [Best Wishes] published by Michel Cassé, Paris. The suite consisted of five small lithographs trimmed from the usual 50 x 65 cm sheet and published in a numbered edition of 200 for the Galerie La Pochade in Paris. An additional seven were set aside for the printer and there were ten artist's proofs numbered in Roman numerals. The set of lithographs is Gurlitt no. 72 in the catalogue which erroneously gives the date of 1971 for the suite. The black-and-white 1971 catalogue illustrations as well as this eBay listing both support the 1970 date.

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Ronald Searle Signature

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5) Detail

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ronald-Searle-original-lithograph-1970-numbered-hand-signed-in-pencil-/111035564865?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Ronald Searle, Meilleurs Voeux, 1970, 106/200, Gurlitt (1971) No. 72 (5)

Note:  All the animators' original artwork and other items up for bidding on eBay to raise funds for the "Searle in America" exhibition can be viewed here.

The Searle in America blog is here.

Perpetua, the Ronald Searle tribute blog, is here.

My own Searle posts are all here.

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