Written by Carey Holbrook. Illustrated by Al Smalley. #699 of a limited edition of 1000, signed by author and dated 1949. (Originally published 1938.) Valiant Printing Company, Publishers. Albuquerque.
Holbrook created It's A Bug's Life, with great graphics by cartoonist Al Smalley, as a humorous compendium of creatures, plant life, and noteworthier eccentricities of Albuquerque, where he wrote for the Albuquerque Tribune, and Santa Fe. There's The Ant, The Bumble Bee, The Wasp, and The Cricket, The Chihuahua, The Jerusalem Artichoke, The Trombone, and The Wheelbarrow. Quirky is a good thing.
In the back of the book, How to Find New Mexico Magazine Office (Santa Fe) might still be a walking tour you could take today.
Inscribed by author, September, 1949.
Carey Holbrook moved to New Mexico from Missouri in 1921 and wrote verse for magazines. For five years he wrote the syndicated column, "With the Cut-Out Open", for the Albuquerque Tribune.
Al Smalley was an illustrator and cartoonist. He worked at UPA Productions, where he was a writer on Trouble Indemnity, 1950, a Mr. Magoo animated short film. Other credits include the Pocketful of Pepper comic books and Jolly Frolics Spellbound Hound.
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Condition: Good. Lacks dust jacket, as issued. Black-embossed green sueded card stock covers: On the front, closed tear at top right corner; on the back, closed tear in upper right, small chip on fore edge; bumped corners; fading front and back; black cord is fraying. Pages are clean, undamaged, and complete, with exceptions: Inscription and small open tear on front fly leaf; faint damp stain on upper edges of pages from title page to page 14.
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