Charles Addams: Congratulations!

A classic original New Yorker cartoon by Charles Addams was sold last fall at Heritage Auctions. Father's Day weekend seems a good time to dust it off and present it here.

Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

In the published caption, the punctuation has been cleaned up a bit. The cartoon is reproduced in Brendan Gill's indispensable Here at The New Yorker (1975) in chapter 20. Gill tells an anecdote about a macabre caption which may have been falsely attributed to this very drawing or one like it. I won't repeat it here.

Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

We learn from the listing that this drawing was in the collection of legendary New Yorker editor Katharine White (1892-1977). It must have been passed down to her son Roger Angell (1920-2022) and been sold off after he passed away.

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions listing of October 6, 2023

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/pulp-pulp-like-digests-and-paperback-art/charles-addams-american-1912-1988-congratulations-it-s-a-baby-the-new-yorker-magazine-interior-illustration-november-9-/a/8137-71008.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515#

"Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

With an illustration by Ludwig Bemelmans and a cartoon by Charles Addams

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1940-11-09/flipbook/020/

Heritage is too fond of classifying cartoons as interior illustrations. For the record, here is what should be called an interior illustration:

Illustration for "The Homesick Busboy of the Splendide."
Ludwig Bemelmans
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 20

04668

Saul Steinberg: Pitcher

Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) followed the Milwaukee Braves on assignment for Life magazine in May and June of 1954, his first exposure to baseball. A selection of his drawings were published the following year as "Steinberg at the Bat" in the July 11, 1955 issue. An unpublished work from this series of a pitcher was given to New Yorker baseball writer Roger Angell (1920-2022). It was sold at auction yesterday.

The estimate at Heritage Auctions was $6,000 to $8,000. Bidding started at $3,000.

Saul Steinberg
Heritage Auctions listing accessed September 9, 2023

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/paintings/saul-steinberg-1914-1999-the-pitcher-unpublished-drawing-for-life-magazine-feature-1954pencil-/a/17188-36136.s?type=lotlink--bidnotice-tracked-dailystatus#

Note:  For more on Saul Steinberg's 1954 timeline, see the Saul Steinberg Foundation's website here.

04454

Roger Angell's Copy of Getting Even by Woody Allen

New York bookseller B & B Rare Books, Ltd., has listed New Yorker baseball writer and fiction editor Roger Angell's copy of Woody Allen's collection Getting Even (1971). Previously, we've seen book's from Angell's library listed with a bookseller in Salisbury, Maryland. According to the seller's notes, Allen's early humorous pieces were written in a style similar to that of S. J. Perelman. Allen, to judge from the warm inscription, credits Angell with helping him to find his own comedic voice.  

Woody Allen
AbeBooks listing accessed December 13, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Allen-Woody-Angell-Roger-New-York/31376785090/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore

04184

Roger Angell's Copy of Amateurs by Donald Barthelme

I never got to meet Donald Barthelme; I know him only through his extraordinary short stories, many of them published in The New Yorker, and one of his novels. Neither did I meet Roger Angell, a New Yorker giant who wrote of sports, particularly baseball, and served for many years as the magazine's chief fiction editor. He and his second wife Carol were, in 1976, the fortunate recipients of an inscribed copy of Barthelme's new collection Amateurs, which has recently come onto the market from Angell's estate. It is a book which I have not read, although some of the short stories nevertheless may be familiar. After all, fifteen of the twenty-one stories had originally appeared in The New Yorker, where I may very well have seen them. Angell must have read (and perhaps even rejected) the others as well, so it isn't surprising that, according to the bookseller offering it, "The book itself has no sign of previous use."

I may not have met Angell, but at least I had the opportunity to meet him. I attended exactly one function where he was present, a 2015 opening reception at the Luise Ross Gallery for New Yorker cartoonist Edward Koren, Angell's friend. In 2014, Koren had designed the baseball jerseys for Angell's J. G. Taylor Spink Award ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Columbia University's comics librarian Karen Green pointed Angell out to me, the only one present who was wearing a baseball cap.

Still, I did not feel comfortable introducing myself. I had not read any of his works—I was far more familiar with the writing of his stepfather E. B. White—and I certainly couldn't talk baseball on his level. Besides, he was busy with other people. At least Karen got a photograph of him—with Koren—from the event. Today a cropped version of that photograph has pride of place on Angell's Wikipedia page, mocking me.

Donald Barthelme
AbeBooks listing accessed November 10, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31351038616&searchurl=kn%3DThe%2BNew%2BYorker%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D0&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title19

Note:  Roger Angell's Wikipedia page is here, complete with the photograph taken at the Luise Ross Gallery.

Better still, see Karen Green's uncropped photograph of Angell and Edward Koren together as it appeared on Ink Spill here.

And you might as well take a look at Ed Koren's baseball jersey designed for Roger Angell's big day in Cooperstown here.

Cartoonist Michael Maslin did get to meet Donald Barthelme (talk about your coincidences!) and to write about it years later on his Ink Spill blog here.

Richard Locke reviewed Amateurs for the Times in 1976 (not all that favorably) here.

04140

Roger Angell's Copy of U and I by Nicholson Baker

Sports essayist and New Yorker fiction editor Roger Angell died on May 20 of this year at the age of 101. Now, works from his library are beginning to appear on the market. They are offered by M. S. Books of Salisbury, Maryland. U and I: A True Story is Nicholson Baker's personal and unconventional reflection on his obsessive relationship with the work of author John Updike, the U of the title. Angell's volume is inscribed "To Roger/With thanks—/Nick/March 27, 1991," the year of publication. Unlike most copies, then, it has an association with a third New Yorker writer.

Nicholson Baker
AbeBooks listing accessed November 9, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31351507560&searchurl=kn%3Dthe%2Bnew%2Byorker%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D0&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title8

04134

Roger Angell's Business Card, Signed

Legendary sports writer and J. G. Taylor Spink Award winner Roger Angell passed away Friday at the age of 101. His business card as senior editor of The New Yorker, signed in 2015, was sold two years ago on eBay. The eBay seller from whose collection it came opened the bidding at allowed the market to set the price. It did so at $21.50.

Roger Angell
eBay listing April 3, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Spink-Award-Winner-2014-Roger-Angell-Signed-Business-Card-The-New-Yorker-/392741231551?hash=item5b71339bbf%3Ag%3A8ckAAOSwP81eflEA&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Roger Angell
eBay item description

Roger Angell
eBay bid history

03963

Roger Angell at 100

Today is the one-hundredth birthday of author and editor Roger Angell, one of the great baseball writers of our time. Much of his work over the years has appeared in The New Yorker; indeed he worked with four of the magazine's editors, all but the magazine's founder Harold Ross. On July 26, 2014, Angell received baseball's highest honor for writers, the annual J. G. Taylor Spink Award, at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. This past June, a baseball signed and notated "H-O-F-2014" by Angell was sold on eBay. No doubt it dates from that Spink Award ceremony back when Angell was a spry ninety-three.

Roger Angell
eBay listing ended June 17 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Roger-Angell-HOF-2014-PSA-DNA-New-Yorker-Sports-Writer-Signed-baseball-/223245114227?hash=item33fa721b73%3Ag%3AT4MAAOSwbehbzqIq&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Roger Angell
eBay item description

Note:  You can watch Roger Angell's acceptance speech on The New Yorker's website here.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Roger Angell

Baseball

Signed Baseballs

Attempted Bloggery's Inside Baseball Index

03386

Mort Gerberg in the Gift Shop

After enjoying the retrospective "Mort Gerberg Cartoons: A New Yorker's Perspective" at the New-York Historical Society one naturally wants to see the related merchandise available in the gift shop. First off, the NYHistory Store offers signed copies of Mort Gerberg on the Scene (Fantagraphics Underground, 2019). This book collects most or perhaps all of the works in the show. Thenintroduction is by Ann Telnaes. Some older Gerberg publications are available as well, but these are unsigned.

Twelve framed prints in signed, limited editions of ten—only ten!—are available from UncommonGoods. The "Butterfly Changed" print is already sold out.

Perhaps you'd enjoy your morning coffee more in a mug sporting a classic Gerberg deathbed cartoon. Sure, why not.

Notecards are available for those needing to upgrade their stationery.

Magnets are in stock as well although the "Hamilton Tickets" magnets are, as one might guess, sold out.

Going beyond Mr. Gerberg's art, zipper pouches in the store are adorned with New Yorker cartoons by Bob Mankoff, Charles Barsotti, and Danny Shanahan. Trinket trays—what else?—from Nelson Line reproduce cartoons by Leo Cullum, Michael Maslin, Michael Crawford, and Shannon Wheeler.

There is a modern reprint edition of Here is New York (1949, 2018) by E. B. White with a new introduction by White's stepson Roger Angell.

This signed copy of Mort Gerberg on the Scene is now on the scene in my home library.

Note:  "Mort Gerberg Cartoons: A New Yorker's Perspective" is on view at the New-York Historical Society through May 5, 2019. The NYHistory Store is right there on the premises.

The complete 2019 Nelson Line New Yorker collection catalogue may be seen here.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Mort Gerberg

Signed Books

The New-York Historical Society

Attempted Bloggery's Bargain Basement Index

02872

Harriet Walden's Copy of The Summer Game by Roger Angell

Harriet Walden came to the New Yorker in 1944 as editor Harold Ross's secretary. She later managed the magazine's pool of editorial assistants referred to as Walden Pond. Her 2006 New Yorker obituary by Mary Hawthorne describes her tenure at the magazine.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/01/23/harriet-walden

Harriet Walden's personal copy, we are told, of The Summer Game, Roger Angell's classic 1972 book of baseball essays, is signed and inscribed to her by the author. It is still available on eBay for $150 as of the start of the All-Star break.

Harriet Walden's copy of
The Summer Game by Roger Angell

Inscribed "For Harriet/From her fan,/Roger"

Roger Angell
eBay Listing Ended July 5 2017

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roger-Angell-The-Summer-Game-Signed-First-Edition-New-Yorker-Magazine-Baseball-/302377946853?

eBay Item Description

Image added July 24, 2017

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

The New Yorker

Baseball

Attempted Bloggery's Batty Index

02240