Doris Laufer's Copy of Good Ol' Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz

One does not need to venture very far out on the proverbial limb to  surmise that the Doris Laufer to whom cartoonist Charles M. Schulz dedicated a prepublication copy of Good Ol' Charlie Brown (1957) must have been the Chicago bookseller of that name. Her copy of the Peanuts book features a highly-desirable early drawing of Snoopy made before Charlie Brown's dog matured into his rounder and more familiar proportions.

Charles M. Schulz
AbeBooks Listing Retrieved December 15, 2019

https://www.abebooks.com/Good-Charlie-Brown-New-Peanuts-Book/30514331243/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

Doris who?

From The Art of the Bookstore by Gibbs M. Smith

https://books.google.com/books?id=cxJ54wLyhr8C&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=Doris+Laufer&source=bl&ots=Mzl61C7QuN&sig=ACfU3U08nn7uhwCafwHgYipgeJrxqb-Rzw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjN9KyUqMPmAhXsguAKHZfeD2YQ6AEwBHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Doris%20Laufer&f=false

03112

Middy and Whitney Darrow's Copy of Consenting Adults by Peter De Vries

Prolific New Yorker writer and humorist Peter De Vries (1910-1993) wrote twenty-three novels including Consenting Adults or The Duchess Will Be Furious published in 1980. A copy of this book inscribed to "Middy and Whitney" went to auction in 2013 with a reasonable estimate of $70-$200. It sold for only $15. What went wrong?

For one thing, the auction house, National Book Auctions of Freeville, New York, failed to identify one of the recipients as New Yorker cartoonist Whitney Darrow, Jr. (1909-1999)—the other is the cartoonist's wife Mildred or Middy. So this is a book presented by one New Yorker luminary to another, and to his wife. That alone should make it an object of considerable interest to students of the magazine and of twentieth-century arts and letters...that is, if they know about it. Lots offered for sale in some of the smaller auction houses have been known to fly under the radar. That may have been the case here.

The other problem, and in all likelihood the more serious issue, is that De Vries' name isn't remembered by all that many people today. His books all went out of print in his lifetime and only a very few are back in print now. 

Peter De Vries

https://www.auctionzip.com/auction-lot/Peter-De-Vries-CONSENTING-ADULTS-OR-THE-DUCHESS-W_7574F94937/

Google Books N-Gram Viewer
Some American Humorists

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Peter+De+Vries%2CS.+J.+Perelman%2CJames+Thurber%2CRing+Lardner%2CRobert+Benchley%2CGeorge+S.+Kaufman&year_start=1900&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CPeter%20De%20Vries%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CS.%20J.%20Perelman%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CJames%20Thurber%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CRing%20Lardner%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CRobert%20Benchley%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CGeorge%20S.%20Kaufman%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2CPeter%20De%20Vries%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CS.%20J.%20Perelman%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CJames%20Thurber%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CRing%20Lardner%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CRobert%20Benchley%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2CGeorge%20S.%20Kaufman%3B%2Cc0

03111

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #54

I have only one entry in Cartoon Collections Caption Contest #54. The drawing is by Ellis Rosen.

"I'm going to have to fail you on parallel parking."

December 26, 2019 Update:  The Winner

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Ellis Rosen

Traffic

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

All These Cartoon Caption Contests and Then Some

Attempted Bloggery's Gridlocked Index

03110

Middy and Whitney Darrow's Drawing of Pugsley by Charles Addams

New Yorker cartoonist Whitney Darrow, Jr., and his wife Middy were given a sketch by Charles Addams of the Addams Family's Pugsley. They had it matted and framed, as who wouldn't? It is inscribed "For Middy and Whitney/ with love/ Chas Addams" across Pugsley's chest. The rest of the drawing—the mirror, the chair, the inkwells, and the toothbrush or stick—are all there to explain how Pugsley managed it himself without having to make a trip to the tattoo parlor. He's got quite the hand-eye coordination, that boy does.

Image added December 18, 2019

Image added December 18, 2019

RR Auction: March 2015 Fine Autographs & Artifacts Auction, Boston

https://issuu.com/rrauction/docs/448

Charles Addams
RR Auction

https://www.rrauction.com/PastAuctionItem/333

That sale price, $269.50 including premium, paid fairly recently in 2015 for a framed Addams Family drawing given by one great New Yorker cartoonist to the family of another, is without question on the low side. This is not because Addams' work is underappreciated—far from it. Instead the low price is an artifact, most likely, of the sale taking place a bit off the beaten path at one of the smaller auction houses.

03109

My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #690

That's one small step for my entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #690 for December 16, 2019. The giant leap of a drawing is by Michael Maslin.

"Here we are, sir, back to 1-G."

These captions were a little too earthbound:

"The Eagle has landed, Mr. Baxter."
"Off for a spacewalk, sir?"
"Nice reentry, sir."
"Splashdown!"

December 30, 2019 Update:  The Finalists

January 6, 2020 Update:  I voted with Goleta.

January 13, 2020 Update:  The Winner

Note:  In last week's Caption Contest, cartoonist Drew Dernavich showed us the unfortunate aftermath of a contemporary jousting tournament. Find out why Contest #689 could be headed straight to traffic court.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives

Michael Maslin

Space

Elevators

The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest

The Moment Magazine Cartoon Caption Contest

The Cartoon Collections Caption Contest

All the Above Cartoon Caption Contests and Even More

To Boldly Go Where Attempted Bloggery's Index Has Gone Before

03108

Middy and Whitney Darrow's Copy of Chas Addams' Nightcrawlers

Cartoonists fortunate enough to publish collections of their work have been known on occasion to create especially nice presentation copies of such books for their fellow cartoonists. Such is certainly the case with the copy of Nightcrawlers (1957) personalized by Charles Addams to fellow New Yorker cartoonist Whitney Darrow, Jr., and his wife Mildred, who was known as Middy. The book includes a full-page original drawing of the Addams Family's Uncle Fester shaded with a monochromatic green wash. He is shown raising above his head a sign on which we read the inscription, "For Middy + Whitney/with love/Charlie." 

Chas Addams' Nightcrawlers (1957)

"For Middy + Whitney
with love
Charlie"

The color cartoon on the front free endpaper originally appeared on the New Yorker's cover of February 2, 1957:

Title Page

The so-called Publishers' Foreword merely enumerates Addams' other collections in print.

The Publishers' Foreword

"Well, Kendrick, still think I'm just an alarmist?"

The rear free endpaper reproduces the New Yorker's cover of June 22, 1957, then quite recently published. The cover apparently depicts Pech, the Scottish term for gnomes, engaging in some contemporary gaming.

For purposes of orientation, that's New York City's Automat, now defunct, depicted in the cartoon on the back cover and the roof of the Addams Family mansion, never defunct, on the front cover.

Charles Addams
eBay Listing Retrieved December 13, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NIGHTCRAWLERS-SIGNED-by-CHARLES-ADDAMS-to-Cartoonist-WHITNEY-DARROW-1st-in-DJ/383310080468?hash=item593f0fa9d4:g:ZJUAAOSw0vdd7r5S

Charles Addams
eBay Item Description

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, February 2, 1957

Charles Addams
The New Yorker, June 22, 1957

  

Note:  The blog archives also contain cartoonist Roy Doty's copy of "Stop, Miss!" (1957) by Whitney Darrow, Jr., and cartoonist David Pascal's copy of The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995 by Lee Lorenz. There are also numerous books by Art Spiegelman from the library of collagist and illustrator Stephen Kroninger. Mr. Kroninger has also shared with us books from his library personalized by Terry Gilliam, a cartoonist even before he became an animator and a director, and by Mark Alan Stamaty. Possibly there could be other books archived herein which I don't recall. It's not a topic I've thought about all that much, to be truthful.

Still, there must be quite a bit of this sort of stuff out there and it would be nice to get a bit more of it in here, if you catch my drift. So readers with access to books by cartoonists, particularly New Yorker cartoonists (and Terry Gilliam since he's here anyway) which are dedicated, inscribed, or otherwise embellished to other cartoonists, collagists, illustrators—that sort—please scan or photograph the relevant images and send them along to me here at the blog via my easy-to remember email address. I'm sure it's on the blog somewhere.

At press time, the book remains available on eBay for $5,500. It could make a very nice gift for, say, a friend or a blogger you know.


December 26, 2019 Update:  The asking price has risen considerably.

January 13, 2020 Update:  Discounted by 30%, it's now more or less back to the original asking price.

November 17, 2023 Update:  The price is up again, maybe a nod to the holiday season or else to the increased demand for Addams originals.

03107

Otto Soglow: New Masses for December 1932

New Yorker cartoonist Otto Soglow (1900-1975) gives us one of the slimmest Santas in memory for the December 1932 issue of New Masses. Today Soglow is chiefly remembered as the creator of The Little King.

Otto Soglow
New Masses, December 1932

Otto Soglow
eBay Listing Retrieved July 12, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-MASSES-VOL-8-N-5-DEC-1932-NEAR-FINE-CPUSA-MAGAZINE-OTTO-SOGLOW-COVER-ART/273809511175?hash=item3fc0519307:g:GlYAAOSw5npctlcI

Otto Soglow
eBay Item Description Retrieved July 12, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-MASSES-VOL-8-N-5-DEC-1932-NEAR-FINE-CPUSA-MAGAZINE-OTTO-SOGLOW-COVER-ART/273809511175?hash=item3fc0519307:g:GlYAAOSw5npctlcI

03106

My Other Copy of The Art of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell

Patrick McDonell's public conversation with Chip Kidd at the Society of Illustrators on November 6 concluded with a book signing. The cartoonist not only signed a copy of The Art of Nothing: 25 Years of Mutts and the Art of Patrick McDonnell (2019), he also added a very nice original drawing of Guard Dog. I decided to follow this up by placing a mail order to obtain a copy with his more standard character illustration. It arrived with a drawing of the dog Earl very similar to the one in his video.

Patrick McDonnell Signs 'The Art of Nothing'

MUTTS 25th Anniversary Book

Note:  There's still time to get your own copy of The Art of Nothing signed by Patrick McDonnell with an original drawing like this one here, but only through the end of the year.

03105