From time to time, if only to amuse and challenge myself, I buy cartoon books sight unseen. Generally, there is something about their description I find alluring enough to be willing to take a risk. Don't try this at home unless you're willing to face possible disappointment.
In the case of a copy of George Booth's now classic Think Good Thoughts About a Pussycat (1975), bookseller John K. King offered an inscribed copy with drawings by Marvin Tannenberg, Sam Gross, Bill Woodman, and Booth. That's a great combination of cartoonists usually found in signed copies of the The Art in Cartooning (1975) from the Cartoonists' Guild. Perhaps Raymond, the book's original recipient, carried his copy of the Booth book into the signing, or perhaps it was also available for purchase at whatever venue the signing was held. The seller speculates that Raymond was cartoonist Raymond Thayer, which is interesting, but there's no clear evidence for this one way or the other.
The price of $224.25 is admittedly pricey for a book one hasn't seen. One always worries that a suite of drawings such as this one hasn't been imaged because it just doesn't look quite as good as it sounds. But the bookseller threw in an unrelated letter he received from Booth in response, apparently, to a query or two about buying original art. The book and letter were listed on AbeBooks in February of this year with no images whatsoever:
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George Booth
AbeBooks listing accessed February 13, 2021
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Should I have bought the Booth book sight unseen? Should I have requested a photo or two first? Maybe, but I just went ahead and bought it. Now let's see how it all turned out:
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| With original drawings by (clockwise from top left) Marvin Tannenberg, Sam Gross, Bill Woodman, and George Booth, all inscribed to Raymond |
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| ALS from George Booth to John K. King, bookseller, December 21, 1977 |
There you have it. Three of the cartoonists drew self-portraits, to all appearances, and Booth drew a dog, helpfully labeled DOG. Perhaps these were drawn for a fellow cartoonist. It's hard to say for certain.
The verdict? I am not unhappy with this purchase. The book seems unique enough. If I did overpay, I feel it was not by much. At any rate, I have no regrets about this.
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