Peter C. and Tina Vey's Copy of Childproof by Roz Chast

Recently Jeff Hirsch Books of Wadsworth offered up a copy of Roz Chast's Childproof: Cartoons About Parents and Children (1997). According to the listing, the book has been personalized to fellow New Yorker cartoonist P. C. Vey and his wife Tina with an inscription and a small drawing. The bookseller's item description identifies this sketch as a self-portrait; I'm not so sure. The book was listed on eBay for $115 with a promise that best offers would be entertained. Fair enough.

Roz Chast
eBay listing accessed August 24, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126637086612?_nkw=Roz+Chast+signed&itmmeta=01J61B8WZ44A4HCQTH15DQ4JG4&hash=item1d7c289794:g:ZwAAAOSwUEhmxiPa&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmIVL%2FlmuIclEHtbikk0qw4hRiyw%2B9vQ%2FGiwnSpgmFUieyTKcYK8Ic5cGzFH0dKE2xi67mqrCA6Y4u7CESBGh8j1aFnnIo3

zRhTZpuHafBJtQBc6aVNGkG4cfrE3je0TfcLHnDV9tZ18JqfmuRH%2Bsb8VSnwnKMEeHVCOM6tu7waW9neTR6CW8%2BDXCnbzLcr3Hqy4djNEhm5name36tPxMpZuBzyX%2Bb5CVIUjkNRXjPs6GJ0mnjJcooRTSqmEDIlhkPAPK7NOraGKucb%2FneT1XoiRuRV7Rvu2Jn5Zl6L4AxZUA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9DPo6uwZA

But the volume was also listed on AbeBooks with an offering price of $100. No need to negotiate best offers here.

Roz Chast
AbeBooks listing accessed August 24, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31724049119&searchurl=attrs%3Dsgnd%26ds%3D30%26kn%3DRoz%2BChast%26rollup%3Don%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp0-_-image6

It never hurts to check the bookseller's own website either even if the price proves to be no lower. Still, there's not much one can do once you order the book, as I did, and the booksellers are then unable to find it, as they were. Perhaps I didn't need to shop all those different websites after all.

Roz Chast
Jeff Hirsch Books listing accessed August 24, 2024

https://www.jhbooks.com/pages/books/196221/roz-chast/childproof-signed-first-edition

Note:  If you've got some original art by Roz Chast to share, this blog could be just the place. I'd take images of art by P. C. Vey as well. I'll try not to misplace them.

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Sight Unseen: Martha Russ's Copy of Childproof by Roz Chast

Signed cartoon books are better than unsigned ones, but a book by a cartoonist is most interesting when the author has drawn something in it, just as a book by a novelist is most interesting when the author has written something in it. Unfortunately, a stock image of a book cover tells us next to nothing when the page of particular interest is on the inside. 

Yet many booksellers continue to illustrate their listings with such images, even when the book has some attribute that makes it unique. Roz Chast's collection Childproof: Cartoons About Parents and Children (1997) is a worthwhile read, but it is surely a more interesting object when signed, inscribed, and embellished "with a little drawing of a child." It has become far more difficult to get Ms. Chast to doodle in her books at signings in recent decades, although she does make the occasional exception. For now at least, the used book market is the most reliable way of obtaining a small Chast drawing of a face in one of her collections, although one may have to purchase it sight unseen, as I did.

Roz Chast
AbeBooks listing accessed June 16, 2023

https://www.abebooks.com/comics/Childproof-Cartoons-Parents-Children-Roz-Chast/31532715302/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=readmore

To my mind, fifty dollars plus $4.50 shipping is a reasonable price to pay for such a rarity. But, wait! The bookseller, Jero Books and Templet Co. of Santa Monica, has the very same book listed on Biblio at a 30% discount. A deal! My mama told me, you better shop around—and I listened to the song lyrics.

Roz Chast
Biblio listing accessed June 16, 2023

https://www.biblio.com/book/childproof-cartoons-about-parents-children-roz/d/1548044232?placement=search_results_list

The format of the Sight Unseen posts hasn't changed. I pay out real money for a book I haven't seen an image of but think has a reasonable chance of being worthwhile. When it arrives, I take my own photographs of the book and present my findings here. As expected, my snapshot of the cover doesn't add anything to the stock image.

The title page, though, seems to be everything I expected:

I conclude, then, that this hard-to-find book is well worth $39.50 postpaid. Of course, other opinions are always welcome.

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