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Hiding from the Dog Walker: James Thurber Preliminary New Yorker Cover Art
A nervous man dressed handsomely in jacket and bow tie hides behind a tree. Evidently, he means to conceal himself from a woman walking a large dog. He might be able to avoid her completely—but only if...
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Jerome's Copy of Clyde Fans Book 1 by Seth
With all five books of Clyde Fans now complete and published as an omnibus edition, it seems that only Seth completists would be interested in a lone copy of Clyde Fans Book 1 from 2004. The market for...
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Roger Angell's Copy of Getting Even by Woody Allen
New York bookseller B & B Rare Books, Ltd., has listed New Yorker baseball writer and fiction editor Roger Angell's copy of Woody Allen's collection Getting Even (1971). Previously, we've seen...
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Miguel Covarrubias: A Self-Portrait on a Doily
One of these was bound to turn up eventually:Miguel CovarrubiasAbeBooks listing accessed December 18,...
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Gregory Sofsky's Copy of Addams and Evil by Charles Addams
Gregory Sofsky was born around 1938 in Pennsylvania, according to Ancestry.com. A copy of Addams and Evil (1947) was personalized for him by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1967 with a drawing of the...
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Ronald Searle: Pas de Quatre
The Berlin Conference of 1954 was a meeting of the "Big Four" foreign ministers of the United States (John Foster Dulles), Britain (Anthony Eden), France (Georges Bidault), and the Soviet Union...
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Maurice Sendak's Copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
A first edition of the 1955 classic children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon is inscribed, "To Maury, with fond regards, Crockett Johnson." Maury is, we are told, none other than illustrator...
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Stanley Edgar Hyman: The Critic, Edited
In 1947, literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman wrote a typed letter on New Yorker stationery to editor Samuel Cummings of Tomorrow magazine. Hyman, husband to New Yorker fiction writer Shirley Jackson,...
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Elise's Copies of Two Books by Milt Gross
Five years ago, PBA Galleries auctioned off two books by cartoonist Milt Gross with original drawings dedicated to either Elise or to Elise and Jimmy. The one for both of them is an atmospheric sketch...
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The Poet: Madeline S. Pereny Proposed New Yorker Cover Art
Madeline S. Pereny illustrated three New Yorker covers between 1930 and 1932, but she tried for more. A sale last month of works on paper from the estate of Marvin Oleshansky has brought one of her...
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Future Modernism: Whitney Darrow, Jr., On Campus with Max Shulman
Once again, illustration art by Whitney Darrow, Jr., is hard to decipher on its own. The original art from 1967 looks forward to the year 2079 when space travel and modernism are all the rage, and...
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Whitney Darrow, Jr.: Out, Out, Damned Spot
"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"Macbeth, Act V, Scene 1Today's example of original art by Whitney Darrow, Jr., comes, for once, with a caption written on the illustration board. The original art dates...
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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #833
This week, I diagnosed The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #833 from the issue of January 2 and 9, 2022. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by J. C. Duffy."I never see patients...
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The CartoonStock Caption Contest #162
It's time to disrupt the CartoonStock Caption Contest #162. To recap, here's how the new cash prize contest works: $5 buys three and only three entries. Real cash prizes are $500 for first place and...
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Gluyas Williams: Soap and Water
A boy washes his hands over the course of an eighteen-panel original drawing by Gluyas Williams. The two sheets are individually framed. The second sheet bears a dedication to Timothy, the artist's...
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Peter Arno: What Morris Needs
The amorous Morris gets some sound if probably unwanted advice from the young woman he has his arms wrapped tightly about. The scene is from an original Peter Arno cartoon that was sold at auction just...
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The Saloon in the Home Illustrated by John Held, Jr.
John Held, Jr., was a leading illustrator of the 1920s, which means he was a leading illustrator of the Prohibition era. This made him an obvious choice to illustrate The Saloon in the Home, or A...
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Sight Unseen: Edward Koren In Sloth
Sometimes a stock photo just isn't enough to make the call on a book purchase. A copy of Edward Koren's Do You Want to Talk About It? (1976) boasts "an original drawing by the artist of one of his...
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Blog Post No. 4200: The First New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest?
The history of The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest is pretty straightforward. The magazine published an annual Cartoon Issue from 1997–2012. The caption contest began in the 1998 Cartoon Issue and...
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My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #834
This week, I sank my teeth into The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #834 from the issue of January 16, 2022. My caption is shown below. The drawing is by Brian Hawes and Seth Roberts."You look like...
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