?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
THURBER, JAMES. The Last Flower. A Parable in Pictures. Open pages forming Thurber's text at left facing illustrations to the right, the whole surrounded by a dove blue border. Oblong 8vo, original pictorial orange boards, front joint cracked, edges a bit faded and rubbed; dust jacket with edgewear; four small pinholes through front cover of book extending into first several leaves. Bowden A8a. Ex-collection James Cagney, with his bookplate. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1939
first edition inscribed and signed with a drawing by thurber to actor james cagney and his wife in the month of publication: "For Bill [his wife, Frances Willard Vernon, known as "Willy" or "Bill"] and Jimmy Cagney with all best wishes from Jim. December 2, 1939." The bittersweet tale of the destruction of war and humanity's survival and eternal hope. Rendered in pencil and ink, the drawing shows a forlorn dog laying at a grave next to the book's namesake drooping flower, the headstone marked "Peace 1918-1939" and a setting sun on the horizon. Signed in full again below drawing. Thurber's depiction of the death of peace refers to Germany's having invaded Poland on September 1st, 1939, barely two months before the publication of the book.
