In 1929, George G. Harrap & Co, Ltd., published a splendid new edition of Oliver Goldsmith'sThe Vicar of Wakefield with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. With this volume, Harrap introduced the practice of setting aside some ten "special copies" with original drawings produced by Rackham that did not appear in the edition. Recently, Peter Harrington brough copy no. 2 to the market. Rackham's original drawing illustrates Goldsmith's An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog from Chapter 17. Priced at over $28,000 US, it found a buyer in less than a week.
Endpapers
Arthur Rackham AbeBooks listing as priced on May 12, 2026
Sold!
Arthur Rackham AbeBooks listing ended by May 17, 2026
Out the little old woman jumped, and whether she broke her neck in the fall or ran into the wood and was lost there, or found her way out of the wood and was taken up by the constable and sent to the House of Correction for a vagrant as she was, I cannot tell. But the three Bears never saw anything more of her.
—Robert Southey
Perhaps I should have begun with a spoiler alert. This version of the story, by Robert Southey, is less familiar today than the version with Goldilocks. Southey became England's Poet Laureate in 1813 and was able to dedicate his life to writing. In 1819, it will be recalled, Lord Byron famously savaged him in the Dedication to Don Juan. Southey kept writing, and in 1837 he published The Story of the Three Bears.
In this first version of the tale, the three bears were bachelors and there was as yet no blonde little girl, just a mean little old woman. Southey's story is included in The Arthur Rackham Fairy Book published in 1933 by George G. Harrap & Co, Ltd. Rackham included original watercolor drawings in the first ten numbered copies of the signed edition of four-hundred sixty. Copy no. 5 is currently offered by Peter Harrington of London, and it is in this copy that Rackham chose to illustrate the little old woman jumping from a window.
Arthur Rackham Peter Harrington listing accessed April 29, 2026
The 1905 London edition of Rip Van Winkle was published by William Heinemann. The book cover proudly boasts that Arthur Rackham is the illustrator while not even mentioning author Washington Irving, who first published the story in America in 1819. Copy no. 161 of Rackham's signed, limited edition of 250 belonged to one Isabel Hartley according to her bookplate. This copy acquired an original Rackham ink sketch of the title character dated June 1933. The volume is now available from Different Drummer Books of Niantic for $12,500—plus a modest $8.50 shipping.
Arthur Rackham AbeBooks listing accessed April 14, 2025
Even without reading Floyd Norman'sFaster! Cheaper!: The Flip Side to the Art of Animation (1992), we all know how cost-cutting hurt animation, especially television animation. Amazingly, children never seemed to care. The limited edition of this book is especially intriguing for the inclusion of an original, unique sketch. Number 52 of 100, currently listed on AbeBooks, has caricatures of Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Disney president Frank G. Wells. (Less plausibly, the listing from Brazos Bend Books of Houston indicates Eisner is walking with "presumably Richard Frank," the head of Disney television.)
Floyd Norman AbeBooks listing accessed March 27, 2022
A signed, limited-edition copy of Edward Koren'sDo You Want To Talk About It? (1976) including an original drawing of two loving monsters was offered by Royal Books for $150 in the fall of 2013. It has since found a buyer.
Edward Koren,Do You Want to Talk About It? Limited edition, signed "Koren 6/50 1976" with a signed drawing
A copy of Gahan Wilson's 1988 novel Everybody's Favorite Duck is inscribed by Mr. Wilson with an original drawing of the duck. This book received a single bid on eBay in August. The most collectible copies of this book have a drawing, of course.
There is a considerable tradition of New Yorker cartoonists writing novels. James Thurber, always a man of letters, wrote a short novel or two, shorter fiction being his specialty. James Stevenson published some six novels. More recently, Peter Steiner published his fourth novel. There must be other examples I'm not aware of. Cartoonists by nature have to be good storytellers. Many who write well probably can't resist the allure of the longer narrative.
Gahan Wilson,Everybody's Favorite Duck, Inscribed, "For/Bill Claire/with all best/wishes/from/Gahan/Wilson/and/the/duck" with a drawing of the duck
Note: Check out more of my blog posts on Gahan Wilsonhere.
Don't miss Gahan Wilson's New Yorker work in the Cartoon Bankhere.
The website for "Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird," a documentary by Steven-Charles Jaffe about the cartoonist, is here. The New York City premiere is tomorrow.
Gahan Wilson presents the 2009 Ignatz Award for Best Artist
Gahan Wilson's 2009 radio interview on the Leonard Lopate Show is here.
A couple of Gahan Wilson illustrations are on The Pictorial Artsblog here.
This is the last day to vote for a favorite caption in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest. I am one of three finalists. You can read all about my very first captioning success here.
The basketball preseason has begun. I have one recent post on the sport here.
I have nothing to say about the government's partial shutdown beyond what I've already said about sequestration and the debt ceiling, so don't ask. You can read it in the archives.
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