Search Results: Humor from Citation Books, ABAA/ ILAB

New York & London: D. Appleton and Company, 1858. Complete in two volumes. Small quartos (10" x 7"), xii, [6], & 1136 pages (continuously paginated), volume I with extra engraved title page, the set "Embellished with 24 Portraits on Steel and hundreds of wood engravings." Publisher's one-half black pebbled morocco & marbled paper over bevel edged boards, the spines in five compartments separated by raised bands, lettered & decorated in gilt. Text in two columns.
Edges & joints rubbed, hinges cracked at pastedowns of volume I & front free endpaper of volume II which also has a brief, old tape repair, text moderately toned, otherwise Good.
"I have observed, that in Comedy the best actor plays the part of the droll, while some scrub rogue is made the hero, or fine gentleman, So, in this farce of life, wise men pass their time in mirth, whilst fools only are serious."
 ~Bollingbroke, excerpted from the title age.

New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc, (1940) First American edition 8vo, 278 pp., with illustrations by Robert S Robinson. Publisher's red cloth lettered & decorated in white, in pictorial dust jacket. White lettering at spine partially rubbed away, brief edge wear, endpapers & pastedowns browned from binding glue, otherwise good or better in moderately soiled dust jacket with edge wear including nicks & tiny losses.
Charming & quite funny, The Elephant is White was adapted into the 1944 film Give Us the Moon directed by Val Guest and starring Margaret Lockwood, Vic Oliver, Roland Culver & Peter Graves. "The way in which the irresponsible White Elephants manage to reconcile their cardinal rule (Thou shalt do NO WORK) with their luxurious manner of living is the story of this delectable novel." ~from the dust jacket

Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brothers, (1879). Sextodecimo (7" x 5.5"), 96 pages including 3 full page illustrations from engravings preceding text & 3 following. Publisher's dark red cloth lettered in gilt & decorated in black on the upper cover.
Moderately soiled, spine browned, brief wear at corners, binding cracked following the last page of text (still secure), otherwise good or better.
"Father Tom and the Pope. - There is a time to laugh. And we had it when we read this book ... It is a broad satire on the faith and practice of Mother Rome: too broad perhaps for this country, where the Irish brogue, Irish humor, and Irish technical terms are not as readily caught as they are in the green isle for which the book was written."
 ~Excerpted from the publisher's remarks.

Miami, Florida: The Morton Company, 1940. Pictorial card stock measuring 5.5 inches by 7 inches folded once vertically as issued. The left side presents "greetings" with a manuscript pencil message & the printed ditty supplied above. The right side features "South Sea Lula," three celluloid pages stapled to the inside of the rear cover, when raised one by one, reveal the lovely lady starting in grass cloth skirt & leis & ending fully nude. Additionally included is the original envelope with 1944 postal cancel & "Passed by Naval Censor" rubber stamp.
Envelope tattered & soiled. Booklet with slight edge wear & soiling, otherwise Fine.
Campy, cute & sexy, the penciled message is apparently from son to father who was stationed on the U.S.S. Gladiator in San Francisco.

New York: The Macmillan Co, (1968) First edition, this copy inscribed, signed & dated in ink in the year of publication to Cartha DeLoach. 8vo, xv, 238 pp. Publisher's gilt-lettered gray cloth, in pictorial dust jacket. Upper margins slightly sunned, otherwise fine in very good, spine faded dust jacket The author was an eight term congressman from Arkansas This copy was presented to Cartha "Deke" DeLoach who was then deputy associate director of the FBI, third in command behind J Edgar Hoover & Clyde Tolson. "Hilarious stories of American politics and politicians from the grassroots to Capitol Hill by the senior raconteur of the Kennedy-Johnson era."

New York: GP Putnam's Sons, (1983) First edition, this copy inscribed & signed in ink by Burns on the half-title page. 8vo, 187, [2] pp, including numerous illustrations from photographs. Publisher's grey paper over boards backed in gilt-lettered black cloth-patterned paper, in pictorial dust jacket "Al Hirschfeld Foundation" rubber-stamped on the half-title page, otherwise fine in very good dust jacket; lightly soiled, with slight edge wear As noted by Burns, "at my age, sex gets second billing," replaced, apparently, by pleasing meals such as 4 prunes with skim milk & 2 cups of black coffee. Burns, however, did indeed live to be 100.

New York: Bernard Geis Associates, distributed by Random House, (1959). First edition. Octavo (8.5" x 5.75"), xiii & 204 pages. Publisher's decorated dark gray paper over boards backed in white & gilt lettered green cloth, in pictorial dust jacket.
Trace of wear at spine extremities, slight foxing affecting early & late leaves, otherwise near fine in very good or better dust jacket, lightly soiled, with brief edge wear including a short closed tear.
"Following are a bunch of true experiences that I wrote at various times of my life. All the experiences are about girls, because that is what my life is about - girls. I'm not oversexed, mind you. But I'm not undersexed either. Let's just say I'm sexed ..." ~"Dobie Gillis," excerpted from the Foreword

Ft. Ord, California, December, 1990. First edition. Original mini comic measuring 11 inches by 7 inches, two illustrated sheets folded & stapled forming 8 pages. Slightly wrinkled, lightly toned, staples rusted, otherwise Very Good.An amusing comic book published just before the aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 led by the United States in response to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Particularly interesting is a panel depicting President George H.W. Bush with Hussein as a ventriloquist's dummy on his lap:"Mr. Hussein, What will it take for you to withdraw from Kuwait?" ... "Dan Quail's job and a date with Janet Jackson."

Chicago: Playboy Press, (1967). First edition. Octavo (8.5" x 6"), viii & 407 pages. Publisher's black cloth lettered in yellow & silver on the spine & decorated in blind with the Playboy Rabbit logo on the upper cover, in pictorial dust jacket with art work by Arnold Roth.
A fine copy in very good or better dust jacket with slight edge wear & brief soiling.
"The subject matter ranges from Chinese Communists to British fox hunting, from French guidebooks to American sex manuals, from Broadway to Hollywood, from debts to obesity, from human fingers to human lips ..." 
~Excerpted from the preface.

Franklin, Ohio & Denver, Colorado: Eldridge Entertainment House, 1927. First edition. 12mo, 41 & [3] pages. Original pictorial stapled paper wraps.
Covers almost detached, tape repairs securing front & back wraps, edge wear including small losses & tears, soiled, about Good & still quite serviceable.
Provides instructions for staging a carnival & a series of comedy sketches & stunts to thrill the crowd

Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1950. First edition, this copy signed in ink by Shulman at the ffep. Octavo (7.75" x 5.5"), 191 pages, with illustrations by Bill Crawford. Publisher's gray cloth lettered & decorated in plum on the spine, in pictorial dust jacket.
Spine a bit cocked, offsetting at endpapers & pastedowns, text modestly toned, otherwise very good in very good dust jacket, moderately soiled, lightly browned at the spine, with brief edge wear including a couple of nicks, short closed tears, & a very shallow loss at the top of the spine.
Author Shulman is best known for his girl crazy character Dobie Gillis. Sleep till Noon, on the other hand, is "A roaring burlesque of middle-class morality."

New York: Wehman Bros., "Handy Series, No. 52," 1920. 32mo (5" x 4"), 58 pages plus 6 unnumbered pages of illustrated advertisements. Publisher's pictorial, stapled paper wraps.
Back cover closely trimmed at the bottom edge, text toned, otherwise Very Good.

No place, no publisher, no date (ca. 1946). Original camera-ready political cartoon by Bishop. Pencil, pen & ink on thick paper measuring 12 inches by 10 inches, verso blank, signed lower right.
Lightly toned, small tear in the top margin (not affecting illustration), slight edge wear, pinhole lower left margin, otherwise Very Good or better.
Quite possibly the work of Daniel Bishop, the art work is characteristic but the signature is not. Additionally, the text provides "Knudson's 20% Tax Reduction" but almost certainly refers to Congressman Harold Knutson (R. Minnesota) who introduced legislation to that effect in 1946.
Regardless, a really cool piece which depicts a grinning Uncle Sam slicing pie with the lion's share for "Money Man" while "Labor" requires a magnifying glass to see his portion.