Humor

Humor/Satire

Addams, Charles, Addams and Evil (Simon & Schuster, 1st ed., 16th printing, 1947). Collection of cartoons by the longtime New Yorker cartoonist (1912-1988) and creator of the TV series The Addams Family. Introduction by Wolcott Gibbs. Hardcover, clipped dust jacket with some wear and tear to edges. Bright coloring in the dust jacket illustration; book as a whole in very good condition. 8” x 11”. HBB price: $79.

Ervin, Senator Sam, Humor of A Country Lawyer (University of North Carolina Press, 1st ed., 1983). ISBN 0-8078-1566-7. Reminiscences by the famed chair of the Watergate Committee. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, good condition, inscribed “To Bruce Wofford, with all good wishes” and dated October 23, 1983. HBB price: $40.

Griffin, Kathy, Official Book Club Selection (Ballantine Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, 2009). ISBN 978-0-345-51851-4. As new, with unclipped dust jacket, autographed on title page. Hardcover, 357 pp. HBB price: $50.

Tallant, Robert, Mrs. Candy Strikes It Rich (Doubleday & Co., 1954, 1st ed.). LOC 54-7663. Comic Mardi Gras romp featuring the social-climbing, nouveau-riche Mrs. Eustacia Candy Petit of Cairo Street, N’awlins. Third of a series of Mrs. Candy comedies. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, good condition, inscribed to Charlotte NC arts maven Gladys Lavitan.  HBB price: $50.

Marshall, Garry, Wake Me When It’s Funny: How to Break Into Show Business And Stay There (Adams Publishing, 1995, 1st ed., 1st printing). ISBN 1-55850-526-1. Actor, writer and director, Marshall created 14 hit TV shows and directed major movies over a 35-year career he revisits in this memoir written with his daughter, Lori. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, good condition, extensive underlining by previous owner (but at least the lines are straight). Autographed by both authors. HBB price: $20.

Poole, Gary, Radio Comedy Diary: A Researcher’s Guide to the Actual Jokes and Quotes of the Top Comedy Programs of 1947-1950 (McFarland & Co., 2002). Teenager Gary Poole filled eleven spiral notebooks with gags and bits of business he heard on the radio; half a century later, he published this valuable- and funny- treasure trove of fragments of the long-lost scripts of American radio comedy. A boon for wireless enthusiasts and scholars alike. Octavo, 212 pp. Softcover, very good condition. HBB price: $25.

Sutherland, Douglas, The English Gentleman’s Child (Debrett’s Peerage/Viking Press, 1st. ed., 1980). ISBN 0-670-29683-X. Illustrations by Timothy Jacques; preface by James, 18th Lord Elphinstone. One of a series of satirical commentaries on the gentry of the UK (The English Gentleman, The English Gentleman’s Wife, etc. this is the third. Sutherland combined a career in journalism with acclaimed serious biographies; in 1963 he had figured out that the “4th man” of the Burgess-Philby-McLean spy scandal was Sir Anthony Blunt. Blunt bluffed, threatening litigation, and the government suppressed the information on national security grounds until Sutherland was, in fact, proven correct in 1979. 8” x 4.75”. Hardcover, dust jacket price clipped, very good condition. Rare. HBB price: $50.

White, E.B. and K.S. A Subtreasury of American Humor (Coward-McCann, 1st ed., 1941). A good bit of humor pieces by New Yorker writers, rounded out by other bits going back to Ben Franklin. Hardcover, dust jacket with some wear about the edges. good condition. HBB price: $20.