The Swiss Family Perelman~S. J. Perelman~Hirschfeld~1950~First Edition~Rare~Vintage~Free Shipping

The Swiss Family Perelman~S. J. Perelman~Hirschfeld~1950~First Edition~Rare~Vintage~Free Shipping.

This rare first edition book is in good to very good condition. The unique dust cover does have some wear with tears. Edge wear on the cover with some bumping. Minor stains. No markings or inscriptions. Browning on inside covers from age. Pages are clean. Tight binding. See photos. A very collectible copy. Thanks for visiting our shop.

Sidney Joseph “S.J.” Perelman (February 1, 1904 – October 17, 1979) was an American humorist and screenwriter. He is best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker. He also wrote for several other magazines, including Judge, as well as books, scripts, and screenplays. Perelman received an Academy Award for screenwriting in 1956.

Perelman wrote many brief, humorous descriptions of his travels for various magazines, and of his travails on his Pennsylvania farm, all of which were collected into books. (A few were illustrated by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who accompanied Perelman on the round-the-world trip recounted in Westward Ha!.)

Perelman is highly regarded for his humorous short pieces that he published in magazines in the 1930s and 1940s, most often in The New Yorker. For these, he is considered the first surrealist humor writer of the United States. In these numerous brief sketches he pioneered a new and unique style, using parody to “wring every drop of false feeling or slovenly thinking.”

In cinema, Perelman is noted for co-writing scripts for the Marx Brothers films Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932), and for the Academy Award-winning screenplay Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

Albert Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003) was an American caricaturist best known for his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.

Hirschfeld is known for hiding Nina’s name, written in capital letters (“NINA”), in most of the drawings he produced after her birth. The name would appear in a sleeve, in a hairdo, or somewhere in the background. As Margo Feiden described it, Hirschfeld engaged in the “harmless insanity,” as he called it, of hiding her name at least once in each of his drawings. The number of NINAs concealed is shown by the number written to the right of his signature. Generally, if no number is to be found, either NINA appears once or the drawing was completed before she was born.

This practice has given rise to the term “nina”, used by crossword puzzle writers and fans to refer to “a hidden message revealed in the completed grid of a crossword”.

Al Hirschfeld famously contributed to The New York Times for more than seven decades. His work also appeared in The New York Herald Tribune, The Old World, The New Yorker Magazine, Collier’s, The American Mercury, TV Guide, Playbill, New York magazine, and Rolling Stone. - From Wikipedia

“From our book shelf to yours. Wishing you great reading.” Barbara and Michael

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Each book in our collection has been hand selected by Barbara and Michael over many years of hunting for them. We hope you will find a special treasure to read or share.