William James, Jr.'s, Copy of Conclusive Evidence by Vladimir Nabokov

 Vladimir Nabokov's memoir Conclusive Evidence retailed for $3.00 when it was published in 1951. Chapter 6 is "Butterflies," which was originally published in The New Yorker. In 1952, the author, a lifelong lepidopterist, signed a copy for William James, Jr., and added a detailed drawing of a butterfly. This exquisite copy of the book, with James's printed name and Cambridge address, isavailable today from Whitmore Rare Books, Inc., of Pasadena, for $35,000.

Vladimir Nabokov
AbeBooks listing accessed March 10, 2026

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Conclusive-Evidence-Inscribed-original-butterfly-artwork/32402485628/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook_high

Vladimir Nabokov
AbeBooks item description

Chapter 6 got its start in The New Yorker of June 12, 1948.

With a cartoon by Robert Day, left, and then a spot drawing of a mailbox by Esther Pressoir on the first page of "Butterflies" by Vladiimir Nabokov

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1948-06-12/flipbook/024/

April 19, 2026 Update:  Sold, apparently.

Note:  Peter Kuper pays tribute to Nabokov's passion for butterflies in Insectopolis: A Natural History (2025). I photographed the original Nabokov artwork at his Society of Illustrators show here.

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My Copy of Insectopolis by Peter Kuper

I stopped by the Society of Illustrators on Thursday night to attend the opening reception for the new book and exhibition Insectopolis: A Natural History.

The artist, Peter Kuper, brought along a rubber stamp and colored pencils for book signing during the event. The stamp has an image of a butterfly with the artist's name. Here is the copy that he signed and embellished to me:

Here he is signing a copy of his book:

Peter Kuper proudly holds his latest published work:

Kuper's backstory:

The exhibition is on the second floor:

The near end of the exhibition hall . . . 

. . . and the far end:

The exhibition has original drawings and color prints:

The Rose Main Reading Room is in the New York Public Library:

Butterflies:

Vladimir Nabokov, entomologist and author of Lolita:

Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring:

Charles Henry Turner:

Charles Darwin:

The men's room door:

The stairwell:

The exhibition "Insectopolis:  A Natural History" will be on display through September 20 at the Society of Illustrators in New York.

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Natural Selection: Chris Ware Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art

For its eighty-fifth anniversary double issue of February 15 and 22, 2010, The New Yorker published not the classic Eustace Tilley image but four different new covers. The idea was that this quartet of covers—by Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine, Dan Clowes, and Ivan Brunetti—when arranged in a certain rectangle, would form a graphic tribute of sorts to the classic Rea Irvin cover of the magazine's very first issue, the one that used to be run annually until the magazine's editors thought they could do better. The four covers might sound like a neat idea, almost, until you actually look at them next to that first New Yorker cover and try to make sense of the hodgepodge.

Rea Irvin
The New Yorker, February 21, 1925

https://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2010/02/09/claire-keegan-foster/

Chris Ware's cover (at the top left), entitled "Natural Selection," depicts Irvin (looking a bit like W. C. Fields) in his studio trying to decide what bug or other creature to place on the far side of Tilley's monocle. We are made witness to the precise moment when inspiration strikes him.

Ware's preliminary—very preliminary?—sketch for this cover was auctioned at Sotheby's Paris in the Bande Dessinée sale of 2016. The jaw-dropping presale estimate of 15,000 to 18,000 Euros was justified, some might say, when the work sold for the hammer price of 16,250.

Chris Ware
Sotheby's Paris
Bande Dessinée, May 14, 2016, lot 255

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/bande-dessinee-pf1655/lot.255.html

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/2010-02-15/flipbook/CV1/

Detail of the prop top hat and coat:

Realized price:

The other 2010 covers:

"Adaptation"
Adrian Tomine

https://www.comicsbeat.com/new-yorker-anniversary-edition-showcases-cartoon-jam/

"Survival of the Fittest"
Dan Clowes

https://www.comicsbeat.com/new-yorker-anniversary-edition-showcases-cartoon-jam/

"Biodiversity"

Ivan Brunetti

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/2010-02-15/flipbook/CV2/

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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #789

This week I floated a caption to The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #789 from the issue of January 31, 2022. My entry is shown below. The drawing is by Christopher Weyant.

"I don't suppose you left any Red Bull for me?"

February 7, 2022 Update:  The Finalists

February 21, 2022 Update:  I voted for the caption from Melrose.

March 6, 2022 Update:  The Winner

03864

Lászlo Roth: Making the Diagnosis

Jeff Nelson has uncovered one final late Esquire cartoon by Lászlo Roth, one that seems to avoid mixed media and, to a large degree, color. Jeff writes, "By this point in 1958, Esquire had cut way, way back on the full-color, full-page cartoons. This one is a mere quarter-page. Still, it provides a nice little coda to his works in that magazine." Indeed it does.

Lászlo Roth
Esquire, November 1958, page 60

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson

Note:  Once again Jeff Nelson has gone above and beyond in his research of the Esquire cartoons of Lászlo Roth. This is his sixth contribution here, at least.

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Margaret Thurlow's Copy of James Thurber's Fables for Our Time

Margaret Thurlow worked as a secretary and copy editor at the New Yorker. She assisted in answering James Thurber's reader correspondence. She was also able to take dictation from Thurber, which the author apparently found very helpful. In her copy of Fables for Our Time (1940), Thurber acknowledges her assistance with the inscription "For Margaret Thurlow/Who helps me to get people told." He has generously included a group of amusing drawings. There are three classic Thurber dogs—or perhaps it's more accurate to tally it as one dog drawn three times—always facing left. Between two of the dogs is a woman down on all fours who is dwarfed by them; she alone here is right-facing. A butterfly hovers above a flower on the left catching the attention of one of the dogs. On the opposite page is a rabbit, also shown in left-facing profile, and very similar in stride to the dog seen at the top.

The book was offered for sale on AbeBooks for $2,000, but it was also listed on eBay. It was sold on the latter site for a best offer price of $1,600.

James Thurber
Fables for Our Time
New York:  Harper and Brothers, 1940

James Thurber
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved October 21, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=12169552303&searchurl=bi%3D0%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Doff%26sortby%3D1%26kn%3D%2522The%2BNew%2BYorker%2522%26recentlyadded%3Dall%26sgnd%3Don&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp3-_-image4

Best Offer Accepted: $1,600

Note:  Is "get people told" a Midwestern regionalism? It is not listed online in the Dictionary of American Regional English. What do you say?

Who doesn't like books inscribed by James Thurber with intriguing inscriptions or embellished by him with clever drawings? It's all sought after here on Attempted Bloggery. Let's see what you've got.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

James Thurber

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Dogs

Attempted Bloggery's Down-On-All-Fours Index

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