Peter C. and Tina Vey's Copy of Childproof by Roz Chast

Recently Jeff Hirsch Books of Wadsworth offered up a copy of Roz Chast's Childproof: Cartoons About Parents and Children (1997). According to the listing, the book has been personalized to fellow New Yorker cartoonist P. C. Vey and his wife Tina with an inscription and a small drawing. The bookseller's item description identifies this sketch as a self-portrait; I'm not so sure. The book was listed on eBay for $115 with a promise that best offers would be entertained. Fair enough.

Roz Chast
eBay listing accessed August 24, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126637086612?_nkw=Roz+Chast+signed&itmmeta=01J61B8WZ44A4HCQTH15DQ4JG4&hash=item1d7c289794:g:ZwAAAOSwUEhmxiPa&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmIVL%2FlmuIclEHtbikk0qw4hRiyw%2B9vQ%2FGiwnSpgmFUieyTKcYK8Ic5cGzFH0dKE2xi67mqrCA6Y4u7CESBGh8j1aFnnIo3

zRhTZpuHafBJtQBc6aVNGkG4cfrE3je0TfcLHnDV9tZ18JqfmuRH%2Bsb8VSnwnKMEeHVCOM6tu7waW9neTR6CW8%2BDXCnbzLcr3Hqy4djNEhm5name36tPxMpZuBzyX%2Bb5CVIUjkNRXjPs6GJ0mnjJcooRTSqmEDIlhkPAPK7NOraGKucb%2FneT1XoiRuRV7Rvu2Jn5Zl6L4AxZUA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9DPo6uwZA

But the volume was also listed on AbeBooks with an offering price of $100. No need to negotiate best offers here.

Roz Chast
AbeBooks listing accessed August 24, 2024

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31724049119&searchurl=attrs%3Dsgnd%26ds%3D30%26kn%3DRoz%2BChast%26rollup%3Don%26sgnd%3Don%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp0-_-image6

It never hurts to check the bookseller's own website either even if the price proves to be no lower. Still, there's not much one can do once you order the book, as I did, and the booksellers are then unable to find it, as they were. Perhaps I didn't need to shop all those different websites after all.

Roz Chast
Jeff Hirsch Books listing accessed August 24, 2024

https://www.jhbooks.com/pages/books/196221/roz-chast/childproof-signed-first-edition

Note:  If you've got some original art by Roz Chast to share, this blog could be just the place. I'd take images of art by P. C. Vey as well. I'll try not to misplace them.

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Sight Unseen: Martha Russ's Copy of Childproof by Roz Chast

Signed cartoon books are better than unsigned ones, but a book by a cartoonist is most interesting when the author has drawn something in it, just as a book by a novelist is most interesting when the author has written something in it. Unfortunately, a stock image of a book cover tells us next to nothing when the page of particular interest is on the inside. 

Yet many booksellers continue to illustrate their listings with such images, even when the book has some attribute that makes it unique. Roz Chast's collection Childproof: Cartoons About Parents and Children (1997) is a worthwhile read, but it is surely a more interesting object when signed, inscribed, and embellished "with a little drawing of a child." It has become far more difficult to get Ms. Chast to doodle in her books at signings in recent decades, although she does make the occasional exception. For now at least, the used book market is the most reliable way of obtaining a small Chast drawing of a face in one of her collections, although one may have to purchase it sight unseen, as I did.

Roz Chast
AbeBooks listing accessed June 16, 2023

https://www.abebooks.com/comics/Childproof-Cartoons-Parents-Children-Roz-Chast/31532715302/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=readmore

To my mind, fifty dollars plus $4.50 shipping is a reasonable price to pay for such a rarity. But, wait! The bookseller, Jero Books and Templet Co. of Santa Monica, has the very same book listed on Biblio at a 30% discount. A deal! My mama told me, you better shop around—and I listened to the song lyrics.

Roz Chast
Biblio listing accessed June 16, 2023

https://www.biblio.com/book/childproof-cartoons-about-parents-children-roz/d/1548044232?placement=search_results_list

The format of the Sight Unseen posts hasn't changed. I pay out real money for a book I haven't seen an image of but think has a reasonable chance of being worthwhile. When it arrives, I take my own photographs of the book and present my findings here. As expected, my snapshot of the cover doesn't add anything to the stock image.

The title page, though, seems to be everything I expected:

I conclude, then, that this hard-to-find book is well worth $39.50 postpaid. Of course, other opinions are always welcome.

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Atlas Roller Skating by James Thurber?

Is Sex Necessary? Or Why You Feel the Way You Do by James Thurber and E. B. White first hit the bookstalls in 1929. This early collaboration was well-received and helped to launch the stunning book careers of both authors. Thurber and White wrote alternating chapters, but the humorous drawings are all the distinct work of Thurber.  The Cleveland Book Company has listed a copy of the later 1944 edition, "a fantastic copy, with an unmistakeable original drawing by James Thurber (though it is not signed; this is typical of Thurber's doodlings) on the front free endpaper." Reasonable minds may differ, and I personally would take exception to the descriptors "fantastic," "unmistakeable," "typical,"—and "by James Thurber."

 

The drawing, which I take to be Atlas roller skating and losing his hold on the world, is very loose and amateurish, but that isn't enough to make it Thurberesque. The style actually seems rather nondescript; it could easily be the work of anyone inspired by Thurber rather than the work of Thurber himself. For those who are more convinced than I am of the sketch's authorship, the book is listed on AbeBooks for $1,000.

 

James Thurber
AbeBooks listing accessed April 30, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/signed/Sex-Necessary-Why-Feel-Way-THURBER/31153768666/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook_high

Note:  All opinions are welcome. I would especially like to see evidence of mid-1940s James Thurber doodles with stylistic or thematic similarities to or difference from the example seen here.

Is it bad manners to mention a book called Is Sex Necessary? on Mother's Day? I take full responsibility.

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Jean-Michel Folon: The Artist in Autumn

Belgian illustrator Jean-Michel Folon (1934-2005) shows off his fall fashion sense in an color photograph, apparently published in a magazine. The image is signed and dedicated to an admirer by the artist. The item has been available from a Brussels autograph dealer at least since last summer, priced at 89.99 Euros.

Jean-Michel Folon
AbeBooks listing accessed June 21, 2020 and translated into English by Google Chrome

https://www.abebooks.com/Jean-Michel-Folon-1934-2005-Rare-grande-photo/30663663340/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

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Arthur Rackham's Bird Drawing

A pen and ink drawing of a bird made for his nephew in 1931 by Arthur Rackham is offered by Meier and Sons Rare Books of New Canaan, Connecticut. The flowing drawing has decidedly calligraphic qualities.

Arthur Rackham
AbeBooks Listing accessed April 18, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/FRAMED-STUNNING-ARTHUR-RACKHAM-SIGNED-ORIGINAL/30613647878/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

In the year since I archived this listing, the price has been reduced by $100.

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A Wealth of Pigeons Signed by Harry Bliss and Steve Martin

A Wealth of Pigeons by Harry Bliss and Steve Martin is a cartoon collection published on November 17 that grew out of the collaboration between the cartoonist and the comedian in the pages of The New Yorker and on the panel strip Bliss. It retails for $28, but signed copies command a premium, especially given the desirability of a celebrity signature and the difficulty of conducting book signings during the current pandemic. A copy offered on AbeBooks for $72 on December 4 is signed by both authors on a bound-in page and has already been sold.

The signatures of Steve Martin and Harry Bliss

Harry Bliss and Steve Martin

https://www.abebooks.com/Wealth-Pigeons-Harry-Bliss-Steve-Martin/30793296130/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore_low

Harry Bliss and Steve Martin
AbeBooks listing posted December 4, 2020

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Marc Luers's Sketch of Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz

The Peanuts comic strip was in its fourth year in 1954 when Charles M. Schulz made an appearance at the Walter Hines Page Elementary School in South Minneapolis, which his daughter attended. He offered character drawings to families at the school carnival. Mrs. Luers was sporting enough to put up the fifty cents to obtain a large sketch of Charlie Brown for her son Marc. You can buy Marc's very same classic sketch today, but expect to pay a bit more this time around.

Charlie Brown
Inscribed "To Marc—Schulz"

Charles M. Schulz
AbeBooks Listing Accessed August 5, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/Charles-Schulz-Signed-Charlie-Brown-Drawing/30711993145/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=readmore

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Charles M. Schulz

Attempted Bloggery's Good Ol' Index

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Babs and Uncle Bill's Copy of The Dead Game Sportsmen by Vip

Vip is the pen name of Virgil Franklin Partch. (Why did I always assumed his middle name started with an I? Ah, well.) The Dead Game Sportsmen is a decidedly offbeat title for a cartoon collection, even for a decidedly offbeat cartoon collection. It was published in 1954, but Babs, Uncle Bill, and kids didn't receive their copy until 1970, inscribed with a tongue-not-in-cheek "Get Well" drawing. Were they all sick?

Virgil Partch
AbeBooks Listing Accessed July 6, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Dead-Game-Sportsmen-Signed-Drawing-Virgil/7494336460/bd

Note:  At the time of posting, this book is still available for sale on Abe Books.

Hairy Green Eyeball, a.k.a. Harry Lee Green, has some game scans from The Dead Game Sportsmen here.

Just a hint: uniquely signed, inscribed, or drawn upon copies of books by Virgil Partch always make welcome submissions to the blog. They also make nice gifts.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Vip

Signed Books with Original Drawings

Get Well

Attempted Bloggery's Cure-All Index

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Peter Arno's Parade: The American and British Covers

Peter Arno's first cartoon collection was Parade published in New York by Horace Liveright in 1929. The dust jacket illustration does show a parade of sorts: recognizable Arno types dressed to the nines—or not dressed at all—in a not entirely coherent procession moving approximately left to right. Arno was already wildly popular in the States through his groundbreaking work in the New Yorker and the cover only needed to remind potential book buyers of his distinctive style and of the sort of familiar characters they could expect to find within.

Peter Arno's Parade. New York:  Horace Liveright, 1929.

Two years later, when it was time to introduce Arno's work to the British public, a different approach was considered. This time the dust jacket was divided into four quadrants and an Arno cartoon complete with minuscule caption was placed in each corner. These four gags may have been the first Arno cartoons many English readers saw:

Peter Arno's Parade. London:  John Lane, 1931.

The four captions, clockwise from top left, are "See, darling, I told you we couldn't have a Platonic friendship," "Not a very homey boat, is it?," "I was discussing the Mexican situation with Bottomley today. It seems fraught with interest," and "He fought a beautiful war, sir." Half of these are saucy bedroom gags and all four of them feature luxurious, upscale settings. That may not be a bad way to sell books...

Those familiar with Arno's American editions may notice that the Platonic friendship cartoon is out of place in Parade. Instead it is the leadoff cartoon to Peter Arno's Hullabaloo (New York: Horace Liveright, 1930). So the British edition of Parade collects at least some material that is not in the American edition.

The particular copy of the American edition of Parade shown here is from the library of writer Carl Van Vechten:

Peter Arno's Parade
Locus Solus Rare Books Listing Accessed May 28, 2020

https://www.locussolusrarebooks.com/pages/books/204946/peter-arno/peter-arnos-parade

The British edition of Parade listed on AbeBooks has a dust jacket that even the book dealer acknowledges is in poor condition. The price of $8.26 corresponds to 6.50 GBP. American fans of Arno might find the $37 transatlantic shipping cost prohibitive.

Peter Arno's Parade
AbeBooks Listing Accessed May 28, 2020

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30525491104&searchurl=fe%3Don%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dpeter%2Barno%2527s%2Bparade&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2

Note:  Both copies of Parade are available for sale at the time of posting.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Peter Arno

Attempted Bloggery's Anglo-American Index

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