Roz Chast: Three Signed Books

Roz Chast surely remains one of the most popular of New Yorker cartoonists. She has high name recognition and a legion of dedicated fans. Yet a recent trend on eBay has been for signed, used books of hers to sell in the region of $10 each. A trio of books, albeit somewhat worn and poorly photographed, sold in July for less than $40, inclusive of shipping. What's going on?

 

Roz Chast's signature

Roz Chast
eBay listing ended July 1, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265198657921?hash=item3dbf126181%3Ag%3A2%7EoAAOSwDTZgypvr&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Roz Chast
eBay item description

03716

Roz Chast's Susan D.: The Woman Without a Heyday

A friend writes:

I want to tell you about my greatest collecting regret when I let a work by the great cartoonist Roz Chast slip through my fingers. It was in the late '80's I encountered a selection of original cartoons of hers available at the Illustration Gallery in lower Manhattan. The one that caught my eye was on a display rack with other cartoons of hers. (There were other racks with the work of other cartoonists too.) I don't remember any of the other cartoons. I balked at the hefty price tag but I loved the cartoon— Susan D.: The Woman Without a HEYDAY. Maybe it was just the idea of the cartoon I loved. I was a graduate student and gee I could relate, myself being a man without a heyday. In retrospect of course it was my heyday there and then and I should have bought the cartoon anyway there and then. Maybe it was that I didn't relate to it being a woman in the cartoon. Also I had brought a first date into the gallery (not recommended, by the way) and there was no way to actually buy such a ridiculous extravagance for myself on our way to dinner unless I were to return on my own the next day. Again, it was a lot of money I didn't have, I had no income of my own to speak of...which went along with having no heyday. So when the original unexpectedly turned up on eBay [in 2016], I got the rare opportunity to finally make matters right and buy the thing for myself. And I did, almost thirty years after the fact, and for less than I would have paid in the heyday I didn't think I had.

It looks as if the cartoon original did not sell for ten years after this near miss, so that was good work, if not swift work. The eBay seller has done a great job with the photos and documents, but has gotten a few things inexplicably wrong in the text. First off, this is an original drawing, not an "original print" and not a "printer's proof." The cartoon was never published in The New Yorker—and why not?—but it was collected in the book Parallel Universes (1984).

Certificate of Authenticity signed by Roz Chast

Roz Chast
eBay listing ended February 27, 2016

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Signed-Roz-Chast-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Susan-D-The-Woman-Without-a-Heyday-/291689466261?hash=item43ea0c0995%3Ag%3ApOIAAOSw%7EOVWyIQs&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Roz Chast
eBay item description

Roz Chast
eBay bid history

Five bids in total were made by three bidders. Four bids from two bidders came in the last ten minutes of the auction. Here the last bid wins.

Parallel Universes (1984)

Note:  I'll pretend you don't already know what I'm going to say here. This blogger would like to post more original art by Roz Chast along with more stories about the art. Please send scans, photos, and reminiscences.

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