The date was September 15, 1995.
The New Yorker's cartoon editor,
Lee Lorenz, had just published
The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995. A signing party was held, by all accounts a festive affair hosted by editor Tina Brown, then about midway through her time at the magazine. Perhaps twenty cartoonists were present according to
David Pascal, who was one of those twenty. He thought most of the other 95% of those present were probably employees of the magazine.
One of these employees was Diane Vaughan, Merchandising Director of the
New Yorker. Her copy of the book was sold in 2012 at Swann Galleries in New York. Like
Pascal's copy, it has original drawings and inscriptions by several
New Yorker cartoonists, among others. Swann's auction listing includes a fine drawing by
Frank Modell and
Edward Koren, as well as a dated inscription from
Robert Weber. Unfortunately Swann included only one photo, thus omitting the contributions of
Roz Chast, George Booth, Edward Sorel, Victoria Roberts, Arnold Roth, and
Jack Ziegler. Who wants to see those anyway?
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| Greetings to Merchandising Director Diane Vaughan from cover artist Kathy Osborn, and cartoonists Frank Modell, Bob Weber, and Edward Koren, plus one Wayne B. |
August 22, 2022 Update: This book was resold on April 7, 2022 by Alexander Historical Auctions, LLC, of Chesapeake Bay, thankfully with more and better images. Despite these, and with ten years going by, it went for exactly the same amount, $180. Why? Now we get to see the original cat drawn—and labeled—by George Booth, a quickie sketch by Bob Mankoff showing precious little effort, another heavily inked sketch from someone named Wayne B., and sketches by cartoonists Jack Ziegler, Arnold Roth, Danny Shanahan, Roz Chast, Victoria Roberts, and Edward Sorel. Cover artist Gretchen Dow Simpson leaves a warm inscription.
The drawings by Booth, Chast, Koren, Modell, Roberts, Shanahan, and Ziegler are quite collectable. Book sketches such as the ones by Roth and Sorel are downright scarce. Inscriptions by cover artists Osborn and Dow Simpson are hard to come by as well.
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| Front endpaper greetings to Merchandising Director Diane Vaughan from (clockwise from left) George Booth, Bob Mankoff, Wayne B., Jack Ziegler, Arnold Roth, Danny Shanahan, Roz Chast, Victoria Roberts, Edward Sorel, and Gretchen Dow Simpson. |
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Published cartoon by Saul Steinberg, left.
Inscribed, right: "For Diane—
The one who
got the ball rolling—
With gratitude & affection,
Lee Lorenz" |
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| Again, a better image of greetings to Merchandising Director Diane Vaughan from cover artist Kathy Osborn, and cartoonists Frank Modell, Robert Weber, and Edward Koren, as well as the ubiquitous Wayne B. |
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The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995
Item description
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Note: This is the fourth copy of this book to appear on the blog, and at least the second to come out of this signing party. See other copies of
The Art of The New Yorker 1925-1995.
Good news! There's more to read here about
Frank Modell. More, but not enough.
Then there's
really not enough of
Robert Weber.
But if you're looking to find more from
Edward Koren, you've come to the right place.
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