New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael's fourth collection of reviews, Deeper Into Movies, was the 1973 winner of the National Book Award in Arts and Letters. A copy of the book belonging to KNBC television news personality Kelly Lange was sold in June on eBay. Kael's inscription suggests that Lange had the copy in her possession well before it was signed.
Jacket design by Seymour Chwast
"Kelly Lang[sic], I hope you've had some fun with it. Best, Pauline Kael"
An original illustration by Robert Andrew Parker shows Walt Whitman's printshop at 99 Ryerson Street in Brooklyn where Leaves of Grass (1855) was completed. The watercolor was created for The New Yorker, but not published. In 2010, the art was sold by Antiquarian Auctions.
The New Yorker apparently declined to publish Parker's illustration, electing instead to publish a pair of historic photos in the issue of June 12, 1995. Upon examination of the photo of 99 Ryerson, a problem with the watercolor illustration is immediately apparent: Parker has omitted the distinctive elevated profile of the building's center section. The poet Marianne Moore wrote, “Robert Andrew Parker is one of the most accurate and at the same time most unliteral of painters." In my opinion, and perhaps The New Yorker's, the most prominent architectural feature should not be rendered "unliterally."
I don't pretend to know what's going on in Robert Andrew Parker's illustration of an unlikely trio for TheNew Yorker, circa the 1990s. Neither does the eBay seller of the original art; the artist didn't indicate the title or subject matter or date of publication. Someone wrote the word generic on the New Yorker sticker, and there's really nothing generic about the illustration. Indeed, it's a very specific evocation of the holiday season in New York but, presented out of context, its hard to make much sense of it.
Robert Andrew Parker Original illustration art The New Yorker, c. 1990s
I'm old enough to remember when The New Yorker never ran color illustrations inside the magazine. This particular image may have enlivened the "Goings On About Town" section, depicting a movie or play I probably never saw. Or it could have added some color to an article about—maybe something generic, like working from home.
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Robert Andrew Parker eBay listing ended June 23, 2024
In the CartoonStock Caption Contest number 184, Goldilocks tries out a hot tub belonging to the three bears. Let's immerse ourselves.
The rules of the monthly cash prize contest have not changed (and neither has my description of them): Five dollars buys up to three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and $100 for each of five runners up. As of this writing, I've put $145 into the first twenty-nine pay-to-play contests and this thirtieth challenge brings my total cash outlay up to $150. Having achieved runner-up status with two previous entries, I've collected $200 from CartoonStock, so I'm still playing with the house's money, thank goodness. In fact, so few contestants enter that the odds may generally be considered favorable even for us less-gifted caption writers. My three entries are shown below, above the break. The cartoonist is Sarah Morrissette.
"By comparison, you aced the porridge."
"The temperature's just right, but the jet placement is plain wrong."
An artist goes to her psychotherapist in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #913 from the issue of September 16, 2024 and she paints a Rorschach test. My submission is shown below. The insightful drawing is by Suerynn Lee.
"But I'm not repressed. It's just a kitty cat."
These captions lacked awareness:
"I'm going to have to charge you for this." "This is more about you than me." "That's it. Too sane for you?" "If you want, I can make it more deranged." "Whoops! Is that too much self-doubt?" "I see the inability to make a living as an artist."
September 29, 2024 Update: The Finalists
October 5, 2024 Update: I voted for the caption from Rochester.
In the summer of 2018, Sotheby's auctioned off an original drawing by Charles Addams that appeared in The New Yorker in 1957. It is an unusual take on a familiar nursery rhyme.
Charles Addams Original art The New Yorker, November 16, 1957, p. 58
The cartoon forces us to reconsider what exactly is meant by those verses about Jack and Jill that we all know by heart. The drawing had a presale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000. But this time bidders chose to scale not a mountain but a hill.
Charles Addams Sotheby's Fine Books and Manuscripts Including Americana Online sale of June 28, 2018, Lot 229
A single-panel cartoon by Mischa Richter is set in the office of the U.S. Army Censor during the Second World War, very likely in 1944. In July, Westport Auctions offered up the original work with a broad presale estimate of $50 to $10,000. The hammer price was more narrow: $50.
"I'll thank you to mind your own business!" Mischa Richter Original cartoon art
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Mischa Richter Westport Auction listing of July 16, 2024
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