Giving Thanks 2023

Thank You, no. 63/200
Roz Chast

Roz Chast's signature and the limitation

Throughout these dozen years or so of attempted blogging, I have benefited from the support of a bevy of generous contributors, advisors, and occasional nitpickers. I owe a great debt to each of the individuals listed below for offering much-appreciated help and inspiration to me over these past twelve months. To any others I may have neglected to include this go round, please accept my thanks despite my inexcusable laxity. 

Tom Bloom

Scott Burns

Vincent Coca

David from Manhattan

Linda H. Davis

Claude Haber

Joel Jacobus

Stephen Kroninger

Beth Lawler

Michael Maslin

Paul Nesja

Ben Roth

Steve Stoliar

Uki

Roz Chast
eBay listing accessed November 23, 2023
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155283797672?_trksid=p1.c101732.m5053&_trkparms=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F155283797672%3F_trkparms%3Damclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20230719113457%26meid%3Dd745b3e5febc4a91a25724ec1a71cbd8%26pid%3D101732%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26b%3D1%26sd%3D166400801

410%26itm%3D155283797672%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D1%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebWithV11WebTrimmedV3VisualRankerWithKnnV3AndUltBRecall&_trksid=p1.c101732.m5053&mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m5053.l9429&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=1c98a06b5d6742969972ed34cc093a10&bu=43186000575&ut=RU&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20231028013642&segname=11021

Roz Chast
eBay item description

Note:  The limited edition Thank You print by Roz Chast is new to me. Is it recent? I'm curious as to which Bloomsbury Press title this print is associated with.

04511

Giving Thanks 2022

It's Thanksgiving already? Time to find a turkey...

George Booth
The New Yorker, November 26, 1973

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1973-11-26/flipbook/CV1/

Throughout these eleven years of blogging, I have benefited from the support of a number of generous contributors. Some send me submissions, some send me alerts, and some send me corrections. Some function more as behind-the-scenes advisors. Whatever the case, I owe a great debt to each of the individuals listed here for offering much-appreciated assistance to me over these past twelve months. Friends, I thank you all:

Amid Amidi

Tom Bloom

Scott Burns

joecab

Roz Chast

David from Manhattan

Joe Dator

Linda H. Davis

Bob Eckstein

Karen Green

Joel Jacobus

Stephen Kroninger

Michael Maslin

H. Kevin Miserocchi

Jeff Nelson

J. J. Sedelmaier

Steve Stoliar

Jessica Ziegler

04148

Mary Petty: The Turkish Corner

Illustrator Tom Bloom writes to share a scan capturing a fine work of original illustration art by Mary Petty. It depicts a young woman enjoying a private moment of reading surrounded by an extraordinarily rich and exotic collection of Turkish objets d'art. Petty's drawing is exquisitely detailed, with a lushness and texture that the printing process wasn't fully able to capture. This illustration, called The Turkish Corner, includes many distinct decorative patterns rendered with utter conviction. It appeared in Good-Bye, Mr. Chippendale (1944) by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings.

https://thecarycollection.com/products/good-bye-mr-chippendale-1944-robsjohn-gibbings-t-h

Note:  My thanks to Tom Bloom for the terrific scan. This is Tom's twentieth contribution to the blog. I am one fortunate blogger.

03962

Giving Thanks 2021

Turkey Day is upon us once again. This is my special time to give thanks and to offer my help by staying out of the kitchen.

Helen E. Hokinson
The New Yorker, November 27, 1937

I have been writing posts here for more than ten years now, but it's no secret that I am not entirely on my own. In my blogging pursuit I am fortunate to be aided by a dedicated group of knowledgeable readers and contributors with incredible resources and expertise that often seem to perfectly complement what I can provide. I owe so much to each of the individuals listed below for offering their generous help to me over this past year. Friends, I thank you all:

Linda Appleby

Tom Bloom

Daniel Borinsky

Steven D. Brewer

Dick Buchanan

Scott Burns

David from Manhattan

A Friend of the Blog

Joel Jacobus

Stephen Kroninger

David Leopold

Michael Maslin

Jeff Nelson

Joe Petro III

TNBIB

Sally Williams

Note:  Labels that link to posts made possible or more complete by each of these contributors may be found below, with a couple of exceptions. The post on the Lüchow's guest book is itself too full of celebrity names to have room for any contributor labels. Tom Bloom, Joel Jacobus, and David Leopold (the latter apparently through the miracle of Twitter) provided invaluable insights. I have no room below for a label linking to the older post helped along by TNBIB, who provided a valuable update on the topic of Ludwig von Drake cufflinks. Say what you will, no other blog covers these topics.

Last but by no means least, I wish to thank my family, who makes everything worthwhile. 

03811

Al Hirschfeld: Danmarks Films-Serie

Tom Bloom writes, sharing a scarce foreign entry in the Al Hirschfeld canon. He describes Danmarks Films-Serie as a movie industry book, published circa 1948. The heart of the book is twenty-five pages containing approximately one-hundred fifty color-tinted photo portraits (1.75 x 2.5") of movie stars of the day. The actors are named and their studio affiliations provided. There is a half page introduction in Danish as well as an index. The front cover features Hirschefeld's caricature of Clark Gable and the back cover has Robert Taylor and Van Johnson, all leading men with MGM. Three more Hirschfeld drawings are inside: Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon on the front paste-down and Esther Williams on the introductory page.

 

Note:  My thanks to Tom Bloom for treating us to his nineteenth contribution here.

03715

Charles Barsotti: New Yorker Cartoon Pajamas from Sleepy Jones

For those still looking for just the right Father's Day gift, Sleepy Jones offers men's pajamas decorated with twelve classic New Yorker dog cartoons by Charles Barsotti (1933-2014). The pajamas are also available in women's style, so everyone can enjoy a good night's reading. It's called the Doggone Henry pajama set and retails for $198.

https://sleepyjones.com/collections/men/products/henry-pajama-set-barsotti-poplin-blue

Note:  Thanks to Tom Bloom for bringing these PJs to my attention. For bookkeeping purposes, we'll call this Tom's eighteenth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

03655

A Treasury of TV Jibes

During the heyday of TV Guide magazine, TV Jibes was a popular feature, consisting of television-themed cartoons created by some leading practitioners of the art. A dozen pages of these cartoons were collected in A Treasury of TV Jibes, which was included as an insert with the magazine. Hence there is no price on the cover. Alas, there is also no copyright date.

Johnny Carson
Ronald Searle
TV Jibes

Scan by Tom Bloom

Even without a date of publication, we know TV Jibes couldn't have appeared before Ronald Searle's TV Guide cover of 1968 featuring Johnny Carson, and most likely it didn't appear immediately afterward either. Hence, a reasonable estimate for the publication date is 1970.

Johnny Carson
Ronald Searle
TV Guide, August 31-September 6, 1968

Here then is the rest of this issue of TV Jibes, the whole kit and kaboodle, as heroically scanned by Tom Bloom.

   TV Jibes                                   The Young Set
J. B. Handelsman                                  Claude Smith       
Henry Martin                              Charles Rodrigues
Charles Rodrigues                                   Chon Day        

TV Jibe:  Debatable Tactics                                   TV Jibes     
             Brian Savage                              Copper[?]          Hageman[?]
                                                                 Al Kaufman

         TV Jibes                                 TV Jibe:  The Younger Set
Charles E. Martin                                       Sidney Harris      
Henry Martin                                                          
Charles Rodrigues                                                        

TV Jibe:  It Must Be Football                                  My Fellow Americans...
Paul Peter Porges                                                 Brian Savage

TV Jibe:  And Now a Pause for the Program...             TV Jibe:  An Evening at Home
          Sidney Harris                                             Charles Rodrigues
                                                                     Paul Peter Porges
                                                                     Larry [Terence Parkes]

TV Jibes                                     TV Jibe:  Poor Reception
Charles Rodrigues                       Larry [Terence Parkes]
Mort Gerberg                                       Joseph Farris
Val                                           Charles Rodrigues

Note:  First off, my sincere thanks to Tom Bloom for this contribution. As I've already called his scanning heroic, I haven't left myself too much else to add. This is Tom's seventeenth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

We are not alone. Postino writes informatively about this very TV Jibes cartoon booklet in the blog Insomnia Notebook here.

Cover artist Ronald Searle's extensive TV Guide work is surveyed in Perpetua, the Ronald Searle Tribute blog, here. There's no mention of TV Jibes, though, but that could change. 

Numerically speaking, Ronald Searle's centenary closed on March 3, which marked 101 years since the artist's birth. Nevertheless, since the pandemic interrupted any proper recognition of his achievement, I have taken the lead from the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover, Germany, and will continue to celebrate his centenary. Indefinitely.

Three of the cartoonists shown above in the pages of TV Jibes are unfamiliar to me. I will tentatively identify them as Copper, Hageman, and Val, although I am not sure I'm reading the first two signatures correctly. Does anybody recognize the cartoonists or know a little something about them? Do tell.

Also--can anyone tell me with which issue this insert was distributed? I'm kind of a stickler for these things, especially when they're of no importance.

03573

William Steig's Abel's Island: A Signed Poster

Abel's Island, William Steig's illustrated novel for young readers, is about a mouse marooned on an island. The book was published by Farrar Straus Giroux in May of 1976. A poster issued by FSG to coincide with the book's publication listed the various Steig titles then available. Tom Bloom writes that his copy of this poster was "purchased from Ken Sanders (in his pre-Antiques Roadshow days) for $50 in the early '00s." It is signed by Steig.

Books for Young Readers by William Steig

Poster

Photo by Tom Bloom

William Steig's signature

Photo by Tom Bloom

 

03554

Ronald Searle: A Christmas Carol and Hot Elder Wine

The elderberry is "the Englishman's grape" and can be used to make a rich, fruity wine. In Victorian era winters, hot elder wine was sold from stands in the street. It could also be served indoors, as it was quite generously in Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers (1836). This doesn't quite explain why Ronald Searle chose to depict a hot elder wine stand in his cover illustration for Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol (1843, 1961). It's a great period detail, but not one that specifically occurs in the story. So why is it here on the front of the dust jacket?

A Christmas Carol (1961)
Ronald Searle

Scan by Tom Bloom

An 1842 drawing by George Scharff shows a hot elder wine stand in Holborne. Is it possible this could have been Searle's source material? If so, Searle's version certainly isn't a slavish copy.

Hot elder wine stand seen in Holborne, detail, winter 1842
George Scharff

https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/elder-wine/

A more refined commercial setup is depicted more recently in John Finnie's 1986 plate for Wedgwood.

Street Seller of Hot Elder Wine
Wedgwood, 1986
John Finnie

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wedgwood-Street-Seller-Sellers-London/dp/B001L2U7IG

Then again, perhaps it's just an incidental detail that happened to receive unusual cover prominence in the wraparound art. Searle's full spread is meant to emphasize Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim and likely was designed as interior art later forced into double duty as a cover illustration.

https://ronaldsearle.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-dickens.html

Note:  My thanks to Tom Bloom for providing the scan of the book cover which got me started on this subject. This is his fifteenth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

Matt Jones's 2008 post called "More Dickens" includes much or even all the art from Searle's A Christmas Carol and may be seen here.

This year is Ronald Searle's centenary. I don't suppose I've mentioned that before.

At this point, we might as well go out singing:

"Elderberry Wine" (1972)

By Elton John and Bernie Taupin

03466

Giving Thanks 2020

Charles E. Martin
The New Yorker, November 26, 1966

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1966-11-26/flipbook/CV1/

I want to use today to thank those generous individuals who have contributed to this blog over the past year. It's been a difficult year for all of us, but this blogging pursuit has been blessed with more support than ever in 2020. Frankly, the number and quality of the submissions has quite often taken my breath away. Friends, I thank each and every one of you:

Tom Bloom

Dick Buchanan

Scott Burns

John Colquhoun

David from Manhattan

Frank Ferrante

A Friend of the Blog

Sarah Getz

Claude Haber

Joel Jacobus

Stephen Kroninger

Joe Petro III

Steve Stoliar

Jerome Wrinkle

Labels linking to posts made possible by each of these contributors may be found below, with the exception of A Friend of the Blog, who causes me to exceed my 200-character limit on labels. A link instead is provided here.

My thanks also to those family members and friends who have helped me out in a great variety of ways, usually anonymously. You know who you are. I also wish to thank my family for putting up with this whole outlandish pursuit of mine.

03454

Gluyas Williams: Crisis in Washington

What if the sitting president refuses to leave the White House when his term is up? This surprisingly topical question has already been asked and answered by cartoonist Gluyas Williams—in 1929! 

President Coolidge refuses point-blank to vacate the White

House until his other rubber is found

Gluyas Williams

The Gluyas Williams Book, Doubleday Doran, 1929, p. 31

First published in Life, Vol. 93, No. 2415, February 15, 1929, page 10

Scan by Tom Bloom

Obviously, the political situation at the time of the 1928 election was not analogous to today's. President Calvin Coolidge did not seek a second term in office. He was succeeded by fellow Republican Herbert Hoover, who defeated Democrat Al Smith. Prosperity seemed assured.

The Williams cartoon appeared in the February 15, 1929 issue of the old Life magazine with the heading Crisis in Washington. The Life caption refers to the president as Mr. Coolidge rather than President Coolidge. This was a timely cartoon because in 1929 the inauguration was still held on March 4. Eight years later, it would be moved up to January 20, where it remains.

https://mcns.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/

So the caption was reworked slightly for the 1929 publication of The Gluyas Williams Book, presumably because Mr. Coolidge was deemed too informal. The Crisis in Washington heading was dropped.

The Gluyas Williams Book, Doubeday Doran, 1929

Scan by Tom Bloom

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Historical Society, founded in 1791, seems to have the original Williams art in its collection...and on its Twitter account. The caption on the matte is identical to the published caption in Life:

https://twitter.com/mhs1791/status/788389922797457408

Note:  My thanks to Tom Bloom for spotting this cartoon, recognizing its timeliness, and providing the book scans. This is Tom's fourteenth contribution to the blog, give or take a few ballots. 

03407

Dr. Seuss: A First Edition of The Lorax

Today Tom Bloom provides us with a scan of a first edition of The Lorax (1971), Dr. Seuss's influential children's book warning of the dangers of plundering our environment. The Lorax, as Tom likes to remind me, holds pride of place up in the header of this blog, a quotation from the book filling the space where a blog description is meant to go.

The Seuss quotation is, I think, a delightful but ultimately imperfect choice on my part. It is intended by the good Dr. Seuss to be a criticism of unbridled commercialism. In the context of this blog, though, any contemplation of the market's supposed excesses is necessarily tempered by a certain wonderment with the many unique items out there. To wit:

The Lorax (1971)
Dr. Seuss

Scan by Tom Bloom

I do have a runner-up quotation in reserve. It is for use in the unlikely event that I'm ever willing to part with the Lorax. It's the "Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson, verse XXIV from A Child's Garden of Verses.

  "The world is so full of a number of things,
  I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."

This is such a positive ideal, but I'm afraid in the context of this blog it could be perceived as too materialistic. Stevenson's "things" I take to be much broader than the physical objects in any of my blog posts; he is asking us to seek happiness in all the world's wonders and not just, say, in first editions.

Note:  My thanks to Tom Bloom for the scan, which makes me happy as a king. Tom just helped out in identifying one of the New Yorker Profiles illustrators in my post on Hendrik Willem van Loon, so by my reckoning we are now at his thirteenth contribution to this blog.

Here's how the quotation that appears above all my posts appears in the book:

http://ouallinator.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-Lorax-storybook-2.pdf

Surprisingly, my adopted quotation actually does not occur in the animated television special that served as my own first encounter with the Lorax. It has been rewritten (by Dr. Seuss himself, I believe). You may view it at 6:13 in the video. "The birth of an industry! You poor stupid guy: You telling me what the public will buy?" That variant, alas, will never appear in my header.

"The Lorax" (1972)

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Dr. Seuss

Robert Louis Stevenson

Tom Bloom

Attempted Bloggery's Index Speaks for the Trees

03370

Helen E. Hokinson: Portrait of Hendrik Willem van Loon

Hendrik Willem Van Loon was a bestselling author who illustrated his own popular histories, most notably The Story of Mankind in 1921. He was the subject of not one but two New Yorker Profiles, in 1926 and 1943. The latter profile was published over the course of three issues, creating the need for three distinct illustrated portraits of the subject to appear at the head of each installment. It seems likely that Helen E. Hokinson's illustration of van Loon, pronounced "van Loan" from the Dutch, was intended to accompany one of the segments of this three-part article. Her original artwork of van Loon in black tie is currently listed by James Cummins Bookseller.

Helen E. Hokinson
AbeBooks listing retrieved May 2, 2019

https://www.abebooks.com/Portrait-Hendrik-Willem-Loon-pen-ink/30312642675/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

A younger and thinner van Loon was depicted with a cigarette holder in the Profiles illustration of June 19, 1926. The article is by Waldo Frank.

Section header by Rea Irvin, cartoon by I. Klein, and a Profiles illustration

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1926-06-19/flipbook/018/

Helen Hokinson's artwork did not appear in any of the three sections of van Loon's 1943 Profile by Richard O. Boyer. The first part appeared in the March 20, 1943 issue with an illustration that does not try to hide van Loon's double chin, collar size 17 ½". Was having a cartoon on the facing page a consolation prize for Hokinson?

Profiles illustration by Will Cotton, cartoon by Helen E. Hokinson

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1943-03-20/flipbook/024/

The March 27 issue has a Profile illustration by Abe Birnbaum that unflinchingly portrays van Loon's corpulence—he weighed 290 pounds—and his continued smoking. In the end, was Hokinson's portrait too flattering for The New Yorker's editors?

Profiles illustration by Abe Birnbaum, cartoon by Leonard Dove

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1943-03-27/flipbook/024/

 For the third installment, Miguel Covarrubias depicts van Loon with ambidexterity in his dual capacities as writer and artist. "He once drew a picture of himself confronting the world; of the two, van Loon was the larger and more impressive" writes Richard O. Boyer. Once again Hokinson's cartoon appears on the facing page. Just a coincidence?

Profiles illustration by Miguel Covarrubias, cartoon by Helen E. Hokinson

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1943-04-03/flipbook/024/

Note:  At the time of this posting, Helen E. Hokinson's portrait of Hendrik Willem van Loon is still available from James Cummins Bookseller.

I have not been able to identify the illustrators of the 1926 Profile or of the March 30, 1943 Profile, so I would appreciate some assistance with this. I have assumed the Hokinson portrait was never published anywhere; please tell me if I'm wrong about this.


August 31, 2020 Update:  Tom Bloom has identified the signature on the March 30, 1943 Profiles illustration as Will Cotton's. It seems very plausible, even obvious, once pointed out. Thanks, Tom.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Helen E. Hokinson

Abe Birnbaum

Will Cotton

Miguel Covarrubias

Attempted Bloggery's Index of Mankind

03365