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| Chuck Jones Argosy Book Store listing accessed July 6, 2026 |
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Showing posts with label Argosy Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Argosy Books. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Chuck Jones: Coyote Catches Road Runner by Tom Shales of the Washington Post
Back in 1975, animator Chuck Jones presented Tom Shales of the Washington Post with the ultimate compliment to a journalist. The original pencil drawing of everyone's favorite persistent coyote at his moment of triumph is available from Argosy Books.
Saturday, December 27, 2025
Miguel Covarrubias: Economy of the Pacific
Miguel Covarrubias created the illustrated map Economy of the Pacific for the World's Fair Golden Gate International Exposition held in 1939-1940. It was also published as the centerfold of Fortune magazine in the May 1939 issue. Argosy Book Store of Manhattan has one on hand available for purchase.
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| Miguel Covarrubias Economy of the Pacific Fortune, May 1939 |
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| Miguel Covarrubias Argosy Book Store listing accessed December 21, 2025 |
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Saturday, December 20, 2025
Thomas Nast: Christmas, 1863
Thomas Nast's spread over two pages in Harper's Weekly late in 1863 presents us with images of Christmas during the Civil War. Here is a series of vignettes which show his appeal as a storyteller.
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| Christmas, 1863 Thomas Nast Harper's Weekly, 1863, pp. 824-825 |
How common was it to be able to get a furlough for Christmas in 1863? Was household prosperity really all that we see here? Certainly the reality must have been harsher for many, but Nast gives his readers a story they want to believe in. And his Santa Claus creation makes an appearance as well.
The print is available form Argosy Book Store.
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| Thomas Nast Argosy Book Store listing accessed May 29, 2025 |
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Sunday, May 11, 2025
William Steig: Mother and Child
Original art by William Steig celebrates that special relationship between mother and child. A woman is shown sleeping in bed with her baby. It is a published piece, with printer's marks, from an unknown publication. The splendid drawing is unsigned; perhaps it is a book illustration. It is available from Argosy Book Store in New York.
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| William Steig |
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| William Steig Argosy Book Store item description accessed May 10, 2025 |
Note: If you know where this drawing by William Steig was published, please let me know. After you've called your mother.
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Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Otto Soglow: The Little King for A. Atlas Leve
Argosy Book Store has listed a souvenir drawing by Otto Soglow of his beloved character the Little King. It is dedicated to A. Atlas Leve, a coin, stamp, and currency dealer. The piece is framed and glazed, and the paper shows some toning. Argosy dates it to the 1930s. The Little King first appeared in The New Yorker and the popular feature was later syndicated as a comic strip.
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| "To A. Atlas Leve from O. Soglow" |
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| Otto Soglow Argosy Book Store listing accessed April 8, 2025 |
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Thursday, October 5, 2023
The Art in Cartooning Signed by Ten Cartoonists
Ten cartoonists signed a single copy of The Art in Cartooning: Seventy-five Years of American Magazine Cartoons, the 1975 collection edited by Edwin Fisher, Mort Gerberg, and Ron Wolin for the Cartoonists Guild. The book was probably signed no later than 1976, but the circumstances are unclear. Was it signed at a book launch? Was it signed in an office where the cartoonists came and went? It is not dedicated to anyone specifically and it is not signed by the editors.
In general, these cartoonists have group-signed other copies of this book and even added multiple drawings, but this is the only copy of The Art in Cartooning in which I've seen Charles Addams's signature—and I've never seen him leave a sketch in one. With the exception of Marvin Tannenberg, each of the signers was a contributor to The New Yorker. The cover art is The Closed Mind, an "experimental drawing in watercolor and crayon" by Charles Saxon.
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| The Art in Cartooning Argosy Book Store listing accessed October 3, 2023 |
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Sunday, February 5, 2023
The Art of the Redraw: Gahan Wilson's Book Store
A redraw by Gahan Wilson is being offered for sale by Argosy Book Store of New York. Redraws of cartoons typically come about when an original published drawing has been sold, given away, lost even—or perhaps the artist simply doesn't wish to part with it—but a buyer nevertheless wants to have a handmade copy. Here we know the original art was still in Wilson's possession. It seems the first drawing was commissioned by Pepper & Stern Rare Books, perhaps for a catalogue, as the firm's name appears reversed in the front window. (After all, that firm did once obtain art from R. Crumb for a book catalogue cover.) The redraw was created for James Low Autographs, and it is that shop whose name now appears reversed in the window.
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| "That? Oh, that's a leftover from more thoughtful days, I'm afraid!" Original cartoon art Gahan Wilson |
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| Gahan Wilson AbeBooks listing accessed February 4, 2023 |
Note: The art by R. Crumb for Pepper & Stern's 1984 catalogue and poster may be seen here.
Gahan Wilson's cartoon must have been published in order for James Lowe to have seen it. Was it in a Pepper & Stern catalogue, as I conjecture? Was it in The New Yorker, as the Argosy Book Store knowingly asserts? Either way, I'd like to hear about it.
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Saturday, February 4, 2023
Charles Addams: In the Psychologist's Waiting Room
An original, unsigned, rough drawing executed in Conté crayon and pencil by Charles Addams (1912–1988) is available from Argosy Books of Manhattan. It is set in the waiting room of a psychologist's office. The cartoon is apparently from 1959 according to the listing and was almost certainly submitted to The New Yorker. Today, the drawing will cost you $1750, although a more appropriate price might be $1812.
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| Charles Addams Argosy Books listing accessed February 3, 2023 |
On his Ink Spill blog today, New Yorker cartoonist and historian Michael Maslin identified the finished drawing in the issue of April 20, 1981. Argosy's 1959 date for the rough is almost certainly erroneous. The seated man in the waiting room has been reworked into the seated psychologist. The framed diploma is much more at home in the office than the waiting room. The coat rack, and hence the Napoleon delusion, has become the doctor's own.
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| Charles Addams Preliminary cartoon art The New Yorker, April 20, 1981, page 41 Addams, Charles. Creature Comforts, 1981 |
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| Spot drawing by J. S. Nelson and a cartoon by Charles Addams |
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| Spot drawing of a bucket of tennis balls by J. S. Nelson |
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Friday, October 21, 2022
Charles Addams: Mrs. Gilson's Day Nursery School
Argosy Book Store of New York City has acquired a 1959 New Yorker rough by Charles Addams. It is hard to imagine another single panel cartoonist whose preliminary work would be priced at $4,000. To the shop's credit, the issue of the magazine in which the finished cartoon appears is fully cited.
 Mrs. Gilson's Day Nursery SchoolCharles Addams Preliminary art The New Yorker, November 21, 1959, p. 42 |
The full sheet has some paper losses at the lower left and top center.
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Mrs. Gilson's Day Nursery School
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| Charles Addams's corrections to the man observing the school are evident above his signature |
The subject matter, it's safe to say, is one that would not be mined by the magazine today for humor. Addams gets away with it by only implying the presence of children, and by portraying Mrs. Gilson as matronly. The machine gun is a disciplinary prop; the school is a prison.
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| Detail of the man observing Mrs. Gilson at work |
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| Verso |
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| Charles Addams Argosy Book Store listing retrieved October 20, 2022 |
For the finished composition, Addams has made the observer more prominent, enlarging his figure and widening the sidewalk.
Mrs. Gilson's Day Nursery School
Charles Addams
The New Yorker, November 21, 1959, p. 42
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Mrs. Gilson's Day Nursery School
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| Cartoons by Charles Addams and Gardner Rea |
Addams's finished drawing with its masterful shading contrasts nicely on the magazine's page spread with the line work of cartoonist Gardner Rea. Rea's Thanksgiving turkeys are here referring to that year's crop of cranberries contaminated with pesticides. That historical episode has been largely forgotten.
The Great Cranberry Scare of 1959
February 4, 2023 Update: The Addams rough is no longer available (sold today, I believe).
Note: Today, of course, a gun gag set in a nursery school would be unthinkable. School mass shootings were not an issue in Addams's time. In recent years, the reality of schools and guns is handled very soberly in the magazine, often on the covers and, of course, in the editorial content. See, for example, the recent Cover Story: "Chris Ware's 'Lockdown.'"
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Sunday, June 28, 2020
Whitney Darrow, Jr.: Down in the Valley
Jacqueline Susann's novel Valley of the Dolls created a sensation in 1966, eventually selling over 31 million copies. The movie followed in December of 1967, receiving poor reviews yet grossing over $50 million. It wasn't until 1968 that the New Yorker recognized the phenomenon with a cartoon, one by Whitney Darrow, Jr., fairly low-key compared with its source material. His original art is currently available through the Argosy Book Store.
Note: At the time of this posting, the original art remains available at Argosy.
Attempted Bloggery seeks other examples of original cartoon art by Whitney Darrow, Jr.
Whitney Darrow, Jr.
Original New Yorker Cartoon Art
Attempted Bloggery's Drug-Free Index
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| "Well! The Valley of the Dolls!" Whitney Darrow, Jr. Original art The New Yorker, July 13, 1968, page 23 |
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| Whitney Darrow, Jr. Argosy Book Store Listing Accessed June 14, 2020 |
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| "Well! The Valley of the Dolls!" Whitney Darrow, Jr. Original art The New Yorker, July 13, 1968, page 23 |
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| Cartoons by J. B. Handelsman and Whitney Darrow, Jr.
https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1968-07-13/flipbook/022/
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"Valley of the Dolls" Trailer (1967)
Note: At the time of this posting, the original art remains available at Argosy.
Attempted Bloggery seeks other examples of original cartoon art by Whitney Darrow, Jr.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
Whitney Darrow, Jr.
Original New Yorker Cartoon Art
Attempted Bloggery's Drug-Free Index
Tomorrow's post: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!
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Friday, June 30, 2017
Garbo Reads
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Ambassador Pamela Harriman. The list of A-listers in the social circle of New Yorker cartoonist and Addams Family creator Charles Addams has been well-documented on this blog alone, and much more scrupulously in Linda H. Davis's biography of the artist. Yet there's something altogether thrilling about finding new evidence that even the reclusive actress Greta Garbo knew Addams. She was indeed the proud owner of a presentation copy of his 1960 collection Black Maria. The book is inscribed "For G G with much love/ New York 1960" and is available from the highly-reputable Argosy Books in New York for $400. The shop reports having purchased it from the Garbo estate. Alas, the listing includes no photos.
James Cummins, another of New York's great bookseller, also has an inscribed copy of Black Maria listed on AbeBooks, and he does indeed provide photos. This book is inscribed to author Nathaniel Benchley and his wife Marg. It is also dated New York 1960 and it is available for $750.
Note: Support your local blog! Attempted Bloggery is by no means above celebrity worship. If you own or have access to a book presented by A-list cartoonist Charles Addams to an A-list celebrity, you don't have to be shy about it. Send a scan or sharp photo of the book's cover and inscription and let the world admire it.
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
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| Charles Addams' Black Maria (1960) Argosy Book Store AbeBooks Listing as of June 24, 2017 |
James Cummins, another of New York's great bookseller, also has an inscribed copy of Black Maria listed on AbeBooks, and he does indeed provide photos. This book is inscribed to author Nathaniel Benchley and his wife Marg. It is also dated New York 1960 and it is available for $750.
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| Charles Addams' Black Maria (1960) James Cummins Bookseller AbeBooks Listing as of June 29, 2017 |
Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:
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