 |
| William Steig AbeBooks listing accessed June 29, 2026 |
 |
| William Steig AbeBooks item description |
Note: William Steig's woodcarvings are new to me. In 1939, Time magazine wrote about an exhibition of these pieces here. His Proud Woman from 1941 is in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum here. An example appears on Artsy here. There is another on Reddit here. Now, does anyone have a photograph of the one Nelson Rockefeller kept on his desk?
05285
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 |
 |
| 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 |
05224
Spots by Suba: From The New Yorker is exactly what the title indicates. The 1944 book collects spot drawings by Susanne Suba that were originally published in the pages of The New Yorker. The signed first edition sold in November on eBay was no doubt a rarity, but that doesn't mean it was expensive.
 |
| Susanne Suba eBay listing ended November 26, 2025 |
 |
| Susanne Suba eBay item description |
Note: I can't get enough of interesting signed books related to The New Yorker, such as this one by Susanne Suba. If your library boasts such a volume, why not let me take a look at it. It might make for a future post.
05182
I was all ready to buy this book sight unseen: a crisp, clean, signed first edition of Edward Gorey's The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas (1998). The listing on AbeBooks was from Recycle Bookstore of San Jose, which priced the volume at $49.95, a price that can only be called unseasonably reasonable.
The book was represented by only a stock image—and not by what would have been a useful photo or scan of the signature. Hence it goes under the Sight Unseen category on this blog. Typically, in these posts, I purchase the book and soon find out whether it lives up to the listing's claims. I don't wish to boast, but usually I do all right.
 |
| Stock Image |
 |
| Edward Gorey AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025 |
 |
| Edward Gorey AbeBooks item description |
|
| Edward Gorey AbeBooks item description |
05554
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
a.webp)
