Lucretia J. Weed's Copy of Omnibooth: The Best of George Booth

Lucretia and Peter Weed of Congdon & Weed, Inc., oversaw the publication of a number of cartoon book collections by some of the New Yorker cartoonists whose work we fondly recollect. They include George Booth, Frank Modell, George Price, Charles Saxon, and James Stevenson—quite possibly others as well. What's interesting about Lucretia's copy of Omnibooth: The Best of George Booth, his 1984 collection, is not so much the inscription but the small archive of letters, clippings, and stationery that accompany it.

Imagine being the recipient of a handwritten letter from Booth. Despite the informal tone, he does talk some business. There is humor here as well.

Isn't it just like Booth to use a Laurel & Hardy stamp?

In 1993, Booth contributed an energetic drawing and some encouraging wordage, both equally unique, to the Smith College Alumnae Fund, of which Lucretia was apparently cochair for the Class of '59. Booth offers "an occasional apology to E. Gorey" which I find baffling. Is he giving a tip of the hat to Gorey for The Curious Sofa (1961)? For this?

Personally, I don't know how anyone threw away this 1987 copy of the New York Times Book Review.

The same thing goes for the "Weekend" section of The Missourian, although I probably don't know any subscribers.

It would have been a blast to see Norene and George's work side by side at the Davis Gallery, no?

The Omnibooth front cover—more is more:

George Booth and cat:

Endpaper extravaganza:

Inscribed, "For Lucretia!
George Booth."

Title page

George Booth
eBay listing ended June 10, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/405533252708?_skw=Omnibooth+signed&epid=5154231&itmmeta=01JZPFPVEMVGN3PSYZQCKHKYGX&hash=item5e6baa5c64:g:P1wAAOSwyx1nqOla&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eduzQWvqbA4jUaVcgNZai3CTA5UaAc0hsxXYASagqJPWmXJCpOLMFqSBUJiT%2FhhXENo3llOlBsUr5pgWmob2a0UFZk%2

BDxWmxjzc%2F0fmzu%2BfbvHuacwtXDEe6h6GB66BCeL4%2B9lEXvI%2Ft9UcXnylS5ODgE4YTLXvMsCo3VnR4mKChQgVZkD7h8Q5rQ%2BYdUj5z0%2FeCah4zqnd03TPN70yw4jc0g%2BuzY%2BCCD%2FEPfJW1NpAm%2FGEeqWrP6LEb2a2yQxMIkq2GgOcYgh%2BgXB1RTCwbjBi1CyxZaFILaHjkYAIyjo0w%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7C328_9ZQ

". . . signed by [editor] Kenneth R. Hine." Are we looking at the same book?
George Booth
eBay item description

August 23, 2025 Update:  The book has now made its way from eBay to AbeBooks, where it is listed by Jan's Collectibles of Bethany, MO. There are far better photographs of the Weekend article and The New York Times Book Review cover which I append below. Oh, and the price for the ensemble is now $400.

George Booth
AbeBooks listing accessed August 23, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Omnibooth-Best-George-Booth-Congdon-Weed/32275199230/bd

George Booth
AbeBooks item description

September 25, 2025 Update:  Now at ten percent off.

04997

James Thurber: Marriages Are Made in Heaven

James Thurber, noting that "Marriages Are Made in Heaven," makes an appropriately celestial drawing on stationery of the École des Beaux-Arts. The composition and the figures are delightful, but note how oddly Thurber has linked the arms of the couple as if they are ribbons. There's no point where one person's arm ends and the other's begins. While this could be mere shoddy draughtsmanship, the looping arms might instead be meant to represent lines of orbit, something that would be in keeping with the heavenly theme of the drawing.

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven

James Thurber's signature

James Thurber
eBay Listing accessed November 13, 2017

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Marriages-are-Made-in-Heaven-by-James-Thurber/182877265505?hash=item2a94559e61:g:RZAAAOSwoF1ZwYYi

James Thurber
eBay item description

February 27, 2021 Update:  The Thurber art has new photos, new frame, new price, and a new eBay seller, apparently, in the same town:

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven

Caption

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven
eBay listing accessed February 27, 2021

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ink-Drawing-By-James-G-Thurber-Marriages-Are-Made-In-Heaven-Undated/184680967950?hash=item2affd7ef0e:g:chIAAOSwCh1gNvdd#viTabs_0

James Thurber
Marriages Are Made in Heaven
eBay item description

December 28, 2022 Update:  Plot twist! I just found out that this drawing was sold back in 2017, not on eBay where I had been following it and not in Gilbert, Arizona where the eBay sellers were both located, but at a Newark, Ohio auction house approximately forty miles from Thurber's home town of Columbus. It went for a shockingly low $450 plus a 20% premium. This is an all-too-common scenario wherein the seller of a minor treasure initially asks too much, gets frustrated by the almost predictable lack of interest, and ultimately holds a fire sale and accepts too little. It reads like a morality play.

James Thurber
Apple Tree Auction Center
September 7, 2017

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/james-thurber-1894-1961-ink-on-paper-marriages-ar-3362-c-f3e443d8da?objectID=122924165&algIndex=archive_prod&queryID=6a8e8c8a992c3a9316fa7b5b74cf7ec2#

ames Thurber
Apple Tree Auction Center item description

Note:  I would love to see any other example of a drawing by James Thurber in which arms are linked in this strange manner, if such a thing exists anywhere else. Of course, any Thurber drawing is always welcome here, even an anatomically correct one, again if such a thing exists.

Happy 26th anniversary to my wife!

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