Robert Frost's collection West-Running Brook was written in 1923 and published in 1928. Jerry Rigney's copy was signed by the poet in 1930. Then, ninety-five years and at least one owner later, it was sold on eBay.
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| Robert Frost's autograph |
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| Robert Frost eBay listing ended August 27, 2025 |
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| Robert Frost eBay item description |
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In The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #957 from the issue of August 25, 2025, we find ourselves in hamburger heaven. My entry appears below. The drawing is by Lonnie Millsap.
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| "They say the burgers are to die for." |
September 13, 2025 Update: The Finalists
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A signed and inscribed cartoon book by George Booth was sold last month on AbeBooks. The price, $35.00 plus shipping, was a reasonable one. The collection is Booth Again!: More of George Booth (1989).
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| George Booth AbeBooks listing accessed July 19, 2025 |
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| George Booth AbeBooks item description |
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Edward Sorel's appearances in American Heritage have always been welcome. In December 1992 the editors made that clear with a spread of eight pages of drawings, each in pen & ink and watercolor with accompanying text, in addition to an eye-catching front cover, all with a New York City flavor for "Our Checkered Past."Described as "A fond ride through the bright high noon and on into the sad twilight of the American taxicab," it begins with motorized vehicles in 1896 designed to resemble horse-drawn carriages, and ends in 1982 with the title "Onward and Downward" when the Checker Motor Corporation made its last cab. The artwork for the opening page, however, immediately drops the reader into a maelstrom of taxi traffic.Perhaps with a photo in mind taken just before the May, 1937 unveiling of the Father Duffy statue in Times Square by Mayor LaGuardia, Sorel added taxis, rich color and a sense of humor. His well-lit vision of a Manhattan rush hour has it all: Mr. Peanut, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, hotels, and best of all a swarm of taxicabs--circling in a frenzy of yellow, orange and red, around Father Duffy and several sidelined pedestrians.
A smaller version of this same scene was given the written title, "Duffy Square, 1937" by the artist, the drawing just as frenzied and colorful but looser in execution.Apparently unpublished, it was offered, matted and framed in 2014 at Swann Auction Galleries. I have no information on provenance, but any viewer examining the lot beforehand would have noted a label on the back from Jack's Art Gallery, a reliable walk-in still in business on Broadway in Harlem, and not so coincidentally just a short distance from the artist's apartment.
That said, anyone searching for this issue on eBay or elsewhere may wonder about the drawing on the front cover, which seems to exist in a dreamy world quite separate from the story inside. Titled by the magazine's editors, "Edward Sorel's Christmas Carol to the Lost American Cab," the artist added a sprig of holly to a woman with a haunting stare, which for some collectors may be faintly familiar.Fortunately American Heritage and Sorel, having a little holiday fun, provide the answer at the bottom of the contents' page inside. "Edward Sorel pays homage to a golden age of both taxis and fashion: those eyes first shown from a 1919 Vogue cover by Georges Lepape."Lepape, Parisian-born and credited with 114 Vogue covers, would not have minded sharing the spotlight with a gifted, taxi-loving artist from the Bronx.
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| Edward Sorel Swann Galleries sale of January 23, 2014 |
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| Superpen (1978) Edward Sorel |
On eastern Long Island two months ago, twenty unpublished works by Gahan Wilson were sold as a group.
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| Versos |
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| Gahan Wilson South Bay Auctions, Inc., listing accessed June 6, 2025 https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Gahan-Wilson-American-1930-2019-,-Group-of-20-118-c-04D4526ABC?utm_term=cartoon&utm_source=alerts&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=keywordalerts&utm_content=group-noapp&utm_term=347083 |
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| Gahan Wilson South Bay Auctions, Inc., item description |
Sold! With an initial estimate of $200 to $400, the drawings sold for a more impressive $2,200. Still, that's only $105 per unpublished cartoon.
Note: And there you have it. Those who possess original art by Gahan Wilson are invited to share images of it here.
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James Stevenson inscribed a copy of Let's Boogie!, his 1978 cartoon collection from Dodd, Mead, to Lucretia J. Weed, publisher at Congdon & Weed. He included an inscription and a drawing of a bear, presumably the tee-shirted one from the cover. The book is no longer available.
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| Dedication to New Yorker cartoonist Frank Modell |
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| "It's me again." |
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| It's just going to continue and continue |
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| James Stevenson eBay listing accessed July 10, 2025 |
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