Albert Einstein: To the President of the International Flying Saucer Bureau

In 1952, Albert Einstein of the Institute for
Advanced Study in Princeton politely refused to engage with Albert K. Bender, the president of the International Flying Saucer Bureau in Bridgeport. In 2023, bidders politely refused to engage at auction with the typed letter, signed. It's not a bad piece at all, quite the historical footnote. And the letter should increase greatly in value once the flying saucers reveal themselves.

Albert Einstein
RR Auction ended December 6, 2023

https://www.rrauction.com/auctions/lot-detail/348154606800094-albert-einstein-typed-letter-signed-on-the-topic-of-flying-saucers-one-of-two-known-ufo-letters-from-the-theoretical-physicist/?cat=0

04560

Stanley Edgar Hyman: The Critic, Edited

In 1947, literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman wrote a typed letter on New Yorker stationery to editor Samuel Cummings of Tomorrow magazine. Hyman, husband to New Yorker fiction writer Shirley Jackson, himself wrote for the magazine's "Talk of the Town" page and taught at Bennington College. He complained that his review of a work by Janko Lavrin (perhaps Dostoevsky: A Study or Pushkin and Russian Literature, both published in 1947) was so altered in the process of editing that he didn't want it published unless it was restored to its original sense. He wrote, "I do not believe that editing is a matter of altering the critic's critical views." 

Stanley Edgar Hyman
eBay listing ended May 25, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324124769994?hash=item4b77577eca%3Ag%3ADCUAAOSw1gddSMCy&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Stanley Edgar Hyman
eBay item description

04189

James Thurber: On Freedom

“A woman [Mrs. Eliza Powel of Philadelphia] asked Dr. Franklin well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy[?]—A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

James McHenry (1753–1816), Diary September 18, 1787

James Thurber's response to the children of Class 5-1 in Public School 11 in the Bronx is dated May 2, 1960, toward the end of the school year. Thurber starts out stating that he hasn't had time to read all their letters and he notes that he gets "three thousand letters a year now and couldn't get anything else written if I answered them all." His tone is a bit harsh for a message directed at a group of fifth graders all of whom wrote him letters, and particularly so to the girl who wrote and advocated for freedom. His response, written in the years after Joseph McCarthy, seems to be the sort of warning that boys and girls might not yet be ready to appreciate, but that adults from Benjamin Franklin's time to our own would do well to heed.

Still, there's a certain illogic here, a laxness of rigor. Thurber chides the girl who wrote, "Everybody wants to keep hold of freedom," then himself writes, "Too many people leave it [freedom] lying around instead of holding on to it..." So what exactly would he have wanted her to write instead? 

James Thurber
Bonhams New York listing accessed December 1, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/thurber-james-1894-1961-typed-letter-signed-james-116-c-2374ac8a9d?objectID=175991045&algIndex=upcoming_lots_prod&queryID=446dfacab903806e07dd52a2b4998172

Presale estimate

Despite the continuing relevance of Thurber's warning, the letter went unsold at auction on December 13.

04169

James Thurber: Off the Wall

Back around 1935, James Thurber created murals on the wall of Costello's Bar, a former speakeasy, as payment for an outstanding bar tab. Come January of 1940, Thurber—celebrated writer, playwright, cartoonist, and prolific doodler—no longer had the time for such things. This he wrote in a letter on New Yorker stationery to one Mrs. Bradley. The letter, which will be sold at Swann Galleries next week, conveyed disappointing news: "...I'm afraid I'll have no time for further wall drawings..."

Happily, Thurber wall drawings are preserved under glass at the New Yorker's current offices. The murals at Costello's were restored in 1972 by a team of artists, but they disappeared mysteriously in the early 1990s.

James Thurber
TLS, January 24, 1940

James Thurber
Swann Galleries
Sale 2492 Autographs
Lot 352
November 8, 2018

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2492+++++352+&refno=++743161&saletype=

November 8, 2018 Update:  Sold!

Hammer Price $250

Note:  This blog is sorely lacking in murals by James Thurber. Just sayin'. Anyone with knowledge of the whereabouts of the missing murals from Costello's should get in touch.

Ink Spill has documented Thurber's wall drawings at the New Yorker's One World Trade Center office here.

Peter Arno did some work painting murals, but none are known to survive. If you believe otherwise, step forward.

The intriguing story of the missing Café Society mural by Syd Hoff may be found here.

Not all cartoonists' murals are missing. Paul Karasik writes about the Charles Addams mural now at Penn State here.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

James Thurber

Murals

Typed Letters, Signed

Attempted Bloggery's Wallflower of an Index

02726

Harold Ross: Defending a Reporter

The good news is that the New Yorker's founding editor, Harold Ross, took the time in 1948 to write a letter defending reporter Lillian Ross. The bad news is that recipient Mervin Houser archived the letter by punching holes in it. But at least he kept it.

Harold Ross
TLS, March 19, 1948

Harold W. Ross
eBay Listing Ended January 22, 2018

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Harold-W-Ross-New-Yorker-Editor-Typed-Letter-Signed-1948-Support-LIllian-Roth-/391962508266?hash=item5b42c93bea%3Ag%3AxSwAAOSweLBaXYOQ&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Harold Ross
eBay Item Description

Harold Ross
eBay Bid History
Two bids. The final one gets it.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Harold Ross

The New Yorker

Attempted Bloggery's Defensive Index

02692

A Russell Patterson Autograph

Illustrator Russell Patterson recognized E. Simms Campbell's talent early and it was he who suggested that Campbell specialize in drawing women. In a 1944 letter to a fan, Patterson, a prolific cartoonist who himself specialized in drawing women, states that he has no originals on hand, and agreeing to send one along when it becomes available, in the meanwhile provides an autograph drawing of a woman's head in profile.

Russell Patterson
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved March 30, 2018

https://www.abebooks.com/ORIGINAL-ART-DECO-COLOR-SKETCH-American/22817821956/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore

Note:  Russell Patterson (1893-1977) is not the current subject of the blog. It is E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971) whose work we have been surveying. Readers with access to original art by either artist are encouraged to submit high-resolution scans or photographs.

At press time, the letter is available on AbeBooks.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives

Russell Patterson

E. Simms Campbell

Autograph Drawing, Signed

Attempted Bloggery's Generous Index

Attempted Bloggery supports net neutrality.

02505

A Letter from E. B. White About The Letters of E. B. White

After the publication of The Letters of E. B. White in 1976, the New Yorker's William Walden wrote to White, noting especially a passage about the publication of Stuart Little and recalling his own frustrating experience trying to publish a children's book. Walden goes on to list the errors he found in the book's first printing in the hopes that they might be corrected in future editions. White's entertaining but sobering response says much about the financial realities of the publishing industry, which trump any possibility of publishing corrections. "A real romance, the publishing life!"

E. B. White, Letter to William Walden, January 26, 1977

William Walden, Letter to E. B. White, January 22, 1977

EBay Listing Ended September 15, 2014

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E-B-White-1977-Typed-amp-Signed-Letter-Author-New-Yorker-Writer-Autographed-/301308228861?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item46275eb4fd&nma=true&si=MY%252BVlM1DDf4MNMNGGnCdh3m%252FHQQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

EBay Item Description

EBay Bid History. The winning bid was placed in the final six seconds of the auction.

Note:  Check these links for this blog's posts on these topics:

E. B. White

Typed letters

01417

Schulz Letters

Charles M. Schulz, creator of the beloved Peanuts comic strip, spruced up his letters with printed images of Snoopy at his typewriter. A small collection of his correspondence from the 1970's was offered by Bauman Rare Books at $450. It has subsequently been sold.

http://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/schulz-charles-m-/typed-letter-signed/85698.aspx

0736

Monty Flagg Portrait of Tip

Here once again is Tip Murray as drawn by James Montgomery Flagg, along with an original typed letter. We last saw her here in another illustrated letter. Flagg seems to have used nicknames for a lot of people, even himself, so it is hard in his letters always to know exactly to whom he is referring, but this married woman evidently struck his fancy.

James Montgomery Flagg, Tip from Jip

James Montgomery Flagg, Letter to "Jerryko"

James Montgomery Flagg, Tip from Jip

Tip from Jip

James Montgomery Flagg, Letter to "Jerryko"

eBay Item Listing

http://www.ebay.com/itm/James-Monty-Flagg-c1948-signed-letter-portrait-sketch-/360370427951?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

eBay Item Description

http://www.ebay.com/itm/James-Monty-Flagg-c1948-signed-letter-portrait-sketch-/360370427951?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=VJo29%252F7WbHpl1SY9gWmnl4%252FkT80%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360370427951?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

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