Carl Rose Literary Illustrations

Some literary illustrations by Carl Rose feature Oscar Wilde tweaking Uncle Sam during his tour of the United States, a pair of temperamentally-mismatched Mark Twain bookends, and a portrait of O. Henry looking out affectionately on his city. The present owner writes that these were obtained by a family member at "an auction for the benefit of the Democratic Party in Norwalk, Connecticut in the late 1960’s. Mr. Rose, a resident of Rowayton, CT, and apparent party supporter, donated them for the auction." The owner further states "there are about 20 pages of multiple drawings, and a number of what appear to be suggested layout pages as well." These schematic pages seem to indicate where and in which chapter particular illustrations should appear. Here's one example of each.

Carl Rose
Literary book illustrations

Illustration placement guidelines

This photo showing Carl Rose and others in Rowayton is from Philip Nel's blog Nine Kinds of Pie. Mr. Nel's text and caption follow:

Also, I saw this great photo, taken at a 1958 Rowayton Public Library event celebrating National Library Week.

Back row, top left, is Fred Schwed Jr. (author of Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?). Third from left is John Sharnick (journalist, TV producer). Third from right is Crockett Johnson, and far right is Jim Flora (creator of children’s books and album covers). Front row, left to right: Phyllis Rowand (artist, illustrated some of Ruth Krauss’s books), Carl Rose (cartoonist for New Yorker & others), Ruth Krauss. I’m not sure who the other people are, but one is probably Leonard Gross, whose God and Freud had just been published and was at the event. If you have any guesses as to who the others might be, please let me know.

Photo courtesy of the Rowayton Historical Society

http://www.philnel.com/2014/09/30/veryspecialhouse/

Note:  It should go without saying—but I'll say it anyway—that anyone recognizing these as published illustrations should get in touch. It should also go without saying that possessors of original Carl Rose art and correspondence should send in examples for potential inclusion on the blog.

December 23, 2017 Update:  I now believe these are illustrations for Bennett Cerf's Shake Well Before Using (1948).

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Carl Rose

Original Book Illustrations

Attempted Bloggery's Literary Index

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National Library Week: Peter Max

Whitney Darrow's poster for National Library Week in 1969 was aimed at the youngest readers. For the slightly older crowd, there was a psychedelic poster by Peter Max. The book at the bottom of the poster opens countless new vistas--including Mount Fuji--while the text once again reads, "Be all you can be. Read."

Peter Max, Poster for National Library Week 1969

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/26333847_national-library-week-posters-1-by-peter-max

Note:  Why not check out my earlier blog posts about Peter Max, National Library Week, and posters?

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National Library Week: Whitney Darrow, Jr.

The Boeing 747 underwent its first flight in February of 1969 and entered commercial service the following year. Its distinctive four-engine design may have inspired Whitney Darrow, Jr. in his poster design for National Library Week 1969. An open book spans the jet's wings with a young boy seated comfortably on its pages. The text reads, "Be all you can be. Read."

Whitney Darrow, Jr., Poster for National Library Week 1969

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/26333847_national-library-week-posters-1-by-peter-max

Note:  It's National Library Week. See all the blog posts your librarian won't show you.

There's a lot more on Whitney Darrow, Jr. as well.

Or perhaps you'd like to see some poster art?

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More from the Library of Ronald Searle

This fanciful drawing by Ronald Searle was created on an envelope for a charity auction. The auction was conducted on eBay back in 2007, but I don't believe it's been seen anywhere online since then. Happy National Library Week!

Ronald Searle
Dead Dog Stories, 2007

Note:  Read more of my blog posts on Ronald Searle here.

See what the Ronald Searle Tribute Blog has to say about Searle's dogs (and cats) here.

You may read older posts in celebration of National Library Week here. The are some of my favorites.

Posts about Passover may be found here.

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From the Library of Charles Dana Gibson

It's National Library Week! By all means support your local library, but let's not neglect our private, personal libraries. There's no sanctuary like a room filled with books. Here's an illustration by Charles Dana Gibson set in just such a household library. It is abundant with masterly strokes of the pen. His popular Gibson Girl is here a widow dressed in black, poor thing, but she can still find solace in books.

Charles Dana Gibson, A Widow and her Friends:  She Looks for Relief Among Some of the Old Ones
Life, 1900
The Walt Reed Illustration Archive
Modern Graphic History Library
Washington University Library

http://wulibraries.typepad.com/mghlnews/2013/11/mghl-welcomes-the-walt-reed-illustration-archive.html

Note:  Read more on Charles Dana Gibson here.

See older posts in celebration of on National Library Week here.

Read posts about Passover here.

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Rooms of Wonder: From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899

"Rooms of Wonder:  From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899"
The Grolier Club
December 5, 2012 to February 2, 2013

In the days before large public museums, private collectors gathered interesting specimens from nature. These were displayed in Wunderkammern or "Cabinets of Curiosities." Collectors included physicians, apothecaries, naturalists, and the wealthy. Many collections were recorded in prints, drawings, and paintings. Collections of Wunderkammer books such as that of Peter the Great went on to become the basis of major library collections. Some of the oddities recorded--for example, babies and adults with anatomical deformities--later inspired showmen such as P. T. Barnum to create carnival freak shows. Various books and other scarce objects collected between the 17th and 19th centuries were recently exhibited in New York at the Grolier Club.

In my more fanciful moods, I can almost imagine myself as a 17th century collector of exquisite biological specimens, cataloguing a scholarly and beautiful Wunderkammer that could one day form the basis of a natural history museum. Then I remember I most likely would have been an impoverished peasant unable to afford even a stuffed crocodile to suspend from the ceiling.

The show "Rooms of Wonder, from Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899" ran from December 5, 2012 to February 2, 2013. Let's look at a few choice objects from the display in honor of National Library Week, as if we needed an excuse.

Albert Seba, Crocodile (hand colored)
 Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata description, 
Vols. I and II (Amsterdam 1734 and 1758)

Collection of the George Peabody Library of the Sheridan Library Special Collections,

Johns Hopkins University.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/arts/design/rooms-of-wonder-at-the-grolier-club.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The crododile is displayed on the exhibition poster and on the catalogue. The catalogue is available for $25.

Rooms of Wonder Catalogue
The Grolier Club

Here is the Grolier Club's press release:

"Rooms of Wonder:  From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899," Press Release, Page 1

"Rooms of Wonder:  From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899," Press Release, Page 2

"Rooms of Wonder:  From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899,"
Introductory Wall Text

Albert Seba
Snakes (hand colored)
Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata description, 

Vols. I and II (Amsterdam 1734 and 1758)

Collection of the George Peabody Library of the Sheridan Library Special Collections,

Johns Hopkins University.

Albert Seba
Crocodile (hand colored)
 Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata description, 
Vols. I and II (Amsterdam 1734 and 1758)

Collection of the George Peabody Library of the Sheridan Library Special Collections,

Johns Hopkins University.

Albert Seba
Blowfish, Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio
[A collection of natural history objects, accurately and richly described] Volume 1 (Amsterdam, 1734)

 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=3

Albert Seba
Engraved Portrait, (Amsterdam, 1731)

http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=5

Martin Frobenius Ledermüller, Subscription Prospectus with Hand-Colored Engraved Plate of Two Flying Squirrels (Nuremberg, 1762)

Pedro Francisco Dávila, Catalogue Systématique et raisonné  des Curiosités (Paris, 1767)

George Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville, A Catalogue of the Shells Contained in the Collection of the Late Earl of Tankerville (London, 1825)

Johann Daniel Schumacher, Palaty Sanktpeterburgskoi imperatorskoi Akademii nauyk Biblioteki i Kunstkamery kotorykh predstavleny plany
[Chambers of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences Library and Gallery] (St. Petersburg, 1741)
Lent by the Houghton Library, Harvard University 

Johann Samuel Schröter, Musei Gottwaldiani (Nuremberg, 1782)

Johann Samuel Schröter, Musei Gottwaldiani (Nuremberg, 1782), Bowl Made from a Cut and Incised Nautilus Shell

Jacob de Wilde
Signa antiqua e musaeo Jacobi de Wilde, Copy 1 (Amsterdam, 1700)

Jan van Rymsdyk
Museum Britannicum (London, 1791)

Ferrante Imperato
Frontispiece to Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples, 1599)

 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=1

Basilius Besler
Continuatio rariorum et aspectu dignorum varii generis,
 Engraved title page (Nuremberg, 1622)
Collection of Florence Fearrington.

 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=0

Nehemiah Grew
Musaeum Regalis Societatis (London, 1681)

Mauro Soldo
Exercise Machine, 1766

 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=4

Tower of London:  A New History and Description of the Tower of London (London, 1810)

George Shaw
Museum Leverianum (London, 1792)
The museum of Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788)

George Shaw
Museum Leverianum (London, 1792)
The museum of Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788)

William Bullock
Print of Bullock's London Museum

Thomas Joseph Pettigrew
History of Egyptian Mummies (London, 1834)
after George Cruikshank

Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo
Mumiographia Musei Obiciani (Padua, 1799)

John Collins Warren
A Description of an Egyptian Mummy (Boston, 1824)

Frederik Ruysch
Opera Omnia, Volumes II and III (Amsterdam, 1739)

Michael Bernhard Valentini
Museum Museorum (1714)

 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=7

Frederik Ruysch
Observationum anatomico-chirurgicarum (Amsterdam. 1691)

 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=2

Frederik Ruysch
Thesaurus Anatomicus Primus

 http://kunstkammerkid.tumblr.com/tagged/wunderkammer

Frederik Ruysch
Thesaurus Anatomicus Primus

 http://www.blouinartinfo.com/photo-galleries/slideshow-rooms-of-wonder-from-wunderkammer-to-museum-1599-1899#image=6

John Barnard Swett Jackson, M.D.
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Anatomical Museum (Boston, 1847)

Madame Tussaud
The Napoleon Museum (London, c. 1843)

New York Tribune, July 14, 1865, "Great Conflagration. Barnum's Museum in Ashes."
P. T. Barnum's Fiji Cannibals
The Rhinoceros, Advertising Card for P. T. Barnum's Travelling [sic] World's Fair (New York, 1874)

The Rhinoceros, Advertising Card for P. T. Barnum's Travelling [sic] World's Fair (New York, 1874)

Emil Seitz after Thomas Benecke
Sleighing in New York (New York, 1855)
Depicting P. T. Barnum and Jenny Lind
Lent by the American Antiquarian Society

May 4, 2013 Update:  An album of thirteen photos from the show at the Grolier Club taken by Gregor J. Rothfuss is posted here.

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National Library Week: Ronald Searle Again

For the second year in a row, I've had more than one post about Ronald Searle during National Library Week. Go figure. Now that we know each other, I'm going to presume there's no need to explain myself here.

If there's one thing I like better than a Searle cat, it's a literary Searle cat with a book collection. Happy reading and happy National Library Week!

Ronald Searle
Slightly Foxed—But Still Desirable, London: Souvenir Press Ltd., 1989,
Limited Edition 10/150 with an original cat cartoon

Sold Prior to June 7, 2012

Ronald Searle
Tail-edge shaved
Slightly Foxed—But Still Desirable, London: Souvenir Press Ltd., 1989, Page 35

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikahime/3229057144/in/set-72157612970104685/

Ronald Searle
Totally illiterate cat discovering the advantage of literature.
Postcard issued by the Stephen Green Press, 1975, promoting
the American edition of More Cats

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63092108@N00/149130958/sizes/o/

Note:  Somewhere out there are nine other copies of the limited edition of Slightly Foxed—But Still Desirable which contain original Searle drawings. Please be a dear and check your rare book collection to see if you possess one of them. I would love to add scans or photos of the original cat cartoons from copies 1/150 through 9/150. Nothing overly ambitious on my part...

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