humor poetry

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket. A collection of humorous verses about animals, friendly or otherwise. Additional poems by Lucy Gardner & Eugene Rudzewicz. Drawings by Lucy, Joel, Joan & John Gardner. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

New York , Knopf, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Color illustrated by Marjorie Priceman. Fans of Poems of A. Nonny Mouse will rejoice in this effervescent sequel containing more than 50 wittily illustrated short verses. In an introductory letter, Ms. Mouse acknowledges that since the successful publication of her first volume, she's "been able to afford the occasional wedge of imported cheese" and "put away something for her old age." Along with traditional offerings, tongue twisters, limericks and four unlabeled poems by Prelutsky--identified as the editor of Ms. Mouse's scribblings--the book includes the familiar poem about infamous "Ooey Gooey," the worm who ends up squashed on a railroad track, and a subversive rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" that concludes with "Throw your teacher overboard / And listen to her scream." Priceman's watercolors, like those she executed in Prelutsky's For Laughing Out Loud , are frolicsome and frisky, mischievously expressive.

New York, HarperCollins, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, unpaginated, color illustrations by William Steig, very clean, tight copy, like new.

Hardcover. Joliet IL, Volland, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, tan and beige pictorial boards with a brown cloth spine, 96 pages. Decorations and designs by Ellery Friend. Wilbur Dick Nesbit (1871-1927), also known by the pen name Josh Wink, was an American poet and humorist. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Greenwillow, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 40 pages. Hardcover. SIGNED BY PRELUTSKY AND ZELINSKY ON TITLE PAGE. Bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY/London, Overlook Duckworth, 2nd pr., 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 93 pages, illustrated throughout in color by Ronald Searle. Light wear o pictorial dust jacket with small tear to lower edge of spine. Clean, tight copy.

hardcover. NY, Harcourt Brace, 1st US, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. Color illust. by Gary Kelley. Small hole in dust jacket spine. Short tear starting in gutter on title-page.

Hardcover. Boston, D. Lothrop and Co., 1st, 1887, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 32 pages. Humorous poetry with b&w cat illustrations on opposite page. Gutter cracked after front fly leaf, but binding firm, pages bright and clean.

Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 1st, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A book length series of poems, looking at life in all its imperfections through the viewpoint of an inextinguishable character whose spirit triumphs through humor. Clayfeld, a comic everyman, is the center of these poems about the nature of beauty, sorrow, and art, as well as the potential for happiness. Thwarted continually by ordinary defeats, Clayfeld endures and laughs, loves and remembers. Critic Harold Bloom called poet Robert Pack an heir to Robert Frost and Edwin Arlington Robinson.

Hardcover. NY , Harper, reprint, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 196 pages. From New York Times best-selling Shel Silverstein, celebrated creator of Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and Falling Up, comes an amazing collection of never-before-published poems and drawings. Copyright page says First Edition, but line below suggests 2013 printing. First published in 2011. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1905, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 104 pages with B/W illustrations by author. Soiled ivory colored covers with orange, blue and black printed design on front, black lettering on spine. Hinge cracking but binding solid. Pages clean. Previous bookseller's label on back end papers.

Hardcover. New York, McDevitt-Wilson, Reprint, 1931, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Non-Paginated. Hardcover. Book rebound. Full color illustrations by F. D. Bedford. Poetry by E. V. Lucas. Book illustrates the lives and occupations of 24 laborers. Marking on some pages in pencil or ink. Light foxing, closed tears to some pages.

Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1st , 1902, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth covers, 143 pages. Black & white pictures by Albert Levering. Tear to top of plate opposite page 24. Spine lettering faded. Some browning to pages. Otherwise clean.

NY, Henry Holt, 1st, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Illustrated with color watercolor pictures by Ted Rand. This slim volume includes 19 poems about nature, including 8 about birds, all of which are illustrated with bold, realistic watercolor paintings. The poems describe animal appearance and behavior in natural, clear images that any nature-watcher can understand. The cardinal, for example, ``Tries not to look conspicuous/ In red, but doesn't quite know how,'' and the spaniels have ``Periscope tails and hairy feet.'' Several poems such as ``The Beaver, Alas'' are wry commentaries on human attitudes toward nature. The few poems which try for an arch tone (``Slothful the sloth is certainly noth'') are less successful. Rand's detailed close-up paintings of individual birds and animals and his more humorous montages of animals for poems such as ``At the Zoo'' balance beautifully with the text.

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A Knopf, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial cloth, 40 pages illustrated in color by Nola Langer. Humorous tale told in rhyme by the noted poet. Library binding, NOT ex-library. Ownership stamp inside front cover, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket with mild fade to spine. Mary Ellen Mark fell in love with the Indian circus in 1969, during her first trip to India. As she watched a huge hippopotamus walk around the ring with its mouth wide open, wearing a pink tutu, she was struck by the beauty and innocence of the show. She returned to India many times, and in 1989 and 1990 she devoted six months to photographing eighteen circuses, following them around the continent by train, plane, van, and auto-rickshaw. Secretive, highly competitive, and each a closed, self-sufficient society, the circuses embody what Mark calls "a poetry and a craziness that are still uncorrupted, and honest, and pure." Beautifully printed in tri-tone, this remarkable collection of photographs captures the texture of circus life outside of the ring - exhausting, humorous, poignant, and often bizarre - as well as the affection and devotion that the performers have for each other and their animals. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Viking Press, 1st, 1953, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in beige cloth stamped in red. Black & white illustrations by Gay. Previous owner's bookplate. Ex-lib, with light stamp to front fly leaf, residue to rear end papers. Humorous poetry for young readers.

Hardcover. Francestown NH, Golden Quill Press, 1ST, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Dark red faux leather cloth spine with red and white cloth over boards; gilt-stamped spine and cover titles. Red and white dust jacket in mylar cover. A collection of short humorous poems previously published in various magazines. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR on the front free endpaper:

Hardcover. New York, Greenwillow, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. Non-paginated. BOOKPLATE ON FRONT ENDPAPER SIGNED BY AUTHOR JACK PRELUTSKY AND ILLUSTRATOR PETER SIS. Full color illustrations. Bright, clean copy. Once again the collaborators of The Dragons Are Singing Tonight have combined their extraordinary talents to concoct an irresistible collection of trolls, wizards, witches, giants, ogres (and a solitary yeti). "Jack Prelutsky is up to his usual hilarious no good in this new collection of witchy, wizardly, ogreish poems....Among the subjects of these briskly amusing poems is a wizard who rashly makes himself disappear, a seven-century-old apprentice witch....and a family-type ogre....Prelutsky's skill with catchy rhymes and delightfully fiendish subject matter is complemented by Peter Sis's humorously foreboding and cheerfully nonchalant illustrations."

Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 81 pages. A very clean, tight copy. The critically acclaimed poet and translator Brooks Haxton embraces life, from our naked beginnings to the first signs of middle age and beyond, in this inviting collection of poems. The book opens with the dramatic birth of twins, and speaks in the intimate voice of a husband, father, and poet. Diverse products of the imagination pass through Haxton's generous mind--the mysterious number zero, Milton's "Lycidas," nuclear technology--even as he captures the humor and pathos of the everyday. In these brief, exquisite lyrics, meditations, and short stories in verse, he immerses his reader in the heat of teenage rivalry and friendship, the tender comedy of sex, and the amazements of the natural world.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1947, Book: Good, Hardcover, beige boards with green and red text; light wear to corners and spine, light spotting to covers. Nash's poems set to music by Vernon Duke. Each song accompanied by playful two tone illustrations by Frank Owen. Inscription on front fly leaf, clean internally. 48 pages, no dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, pages. Vivid, passionate, primitive - 113 paintings by the poet Stan Rice. Here, his canvases explore the terrain of his poetry, as he captures the familiar and the mythical, the magical and the everyday. Here are legendary beasts, card players; images inspired by Greek myths, Bible stories, nursery rhymes. Some pay homage to objects - others to living things. They belong to no contemporary school. They are at once childlike, ironic, and darkly humorous - paintings that attest to the original vision of a talented poet and painter.

Hardcover. NY, Viking, 1st US, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 80 pages, Hardcover with dust jacket. B&w cartoon illustrations by Quentin Blake. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1935, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 82 pages. pre-World War II collection of satire on history, man and current events. Periwinkle linen-lilke cloth with bright red cover lettering and decoration. Day illustrates his humorous verse with Thurber-like cartoons. Nice dustjacket with light edgewear, mild tanning, unclipped.