Ellis Parker Butler collection by BUTLER, Ellis Parker (1869-1937) - 1934

1934. No binding & hard cover. Good. Ellis Parker Butler was a prolific American humorist, short story writer, and poet, best known for his story Pigs Is Pigs. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays.

The collection has 13 items dating from 1913 to 1934 specifically, 6 letters, 1 signed printed card, 1 undated signature, 1 custom designed postal cover, 1 leaflet, 1 book and Photo with negative.

6 Letters:

• ALS to Mr. Garrison at the Brooklyn Eagle, 18 January 1918 concerning an upcoming meeting there. "Since you ask me I will show up at the 'Eagle' office about noon Monday. I would like to come home after the reading. The days are so full of a number of things that I have to use all the minutes I can, even unto the twelfth hour of the PM." Tears at the corners but not affecting the text.

• ALS to Miss Douglas, 8 May 1919, requests her to make a copy and carbon of a text, has been busy with Victory loan, expects to have more stories in the next week, she has brought the best luck, stories are selling.

• TLS (with a drawing of a pig) to S.D. Green, 21 March 1925, with envelope, re 8 students of Trenton Senior High having chosen Butler as a "sort of guardian", requests names of the students so that he can write to them and autograph books for them. • 2 ALS to Charles A. Powell, 18 September 1934 and n.d. Tells Powell that the story of the three boys and Mr. Pratt has "a nice bit of Long Island local color." But Parker can't use it. Recommends that he send it to the local press or the North Shore Journal. His own state of health is miserable (trying to "get better, with diet and drugs and rest."). Advising Powell to use a lighter line when bluefishing and attaches a (bamboo) stick and a length of coiled blue line for his next venture on Great South Bay.

4 Ephemera:

• Signed printed card of the Flushing Hospital Aid Association in which Butler on behalf of the Board of Managers thanks Frank Chapman "for valuable aid and assistance rendered in connection with the preparation and presentation of the Flushing Hospital Carnival Circus of 1913. With envelope of Flushing Carnival Circus addressed to Chapman in Butler's hand, post-marked 10 July 1913.

• Undated signature: "Yours very truly | Ellis Parker Butler | Treasurer."

• Leaflet, circa 1920, advertising lectures and informal talks by Burges Johnson, Butler states: "Whether reading his poems or lecturing, Burges Johnson has invariably given his audience delight. His humor is at once kindly and genuine and his variety seemingly endless."

• Custom postal cover hand-signed in ink ("Pigs is Pigs" and pig illustration), post-marked 5 December [1930], featuring original mixed media illustration by notable collector H.M. Brehm, Appleton, Wisconsin.

1 Book:

• The Confessions of Daddy. New York: The Century Co., 1907. Red pictorial cloth, very good. Presentation copy with inscription on front free endpaper: "To my dear sister Daisy with love Ellis Parker Butler May 1907".

Photo & negative:

• B&w photo of Butler, wearing a white shirt and bowtie, seated at a desk in front of his typewriter, circa 1900, Brown Bothers, New York. With a negative glass plate of the photo.

Collection on consignment with LDRB.