INSCRIBED BY CHARLES ADDAMS WITH AN ORIGINAL DRAWING SIGNED AND DATED BY HIM, FIRST EDITION OF FAVORITE HAUNTS

ADDAMS, Charles. Favorite Haunts. New York: Simon and Schuster, (1976). Tall quarto, original brown paper boards, illustrated endpapers, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $3500.

First edition of this wonderful collection of Addams’ cartoons, inscribed by him, “For Pat and Charles with all best” above his large original drawing, signed by him and dated 1978, showing Wednesday Addams, daughter in the Addams Family cartoons, lying on her side with a pensive look on her face and a thought bubble leading to the printed Simon and Schuster logo—as if the logo’s figure is the man of her dreams, with 94 full-page cartoons (including color endpapers).

The macabre wit and genius of Charles Addams earned him such sobriquets such as "'the Van Gogh of the Ghouls,' 'the Bela Lugosi of the cartoonists,' 'the graveyard guru' and a purveyor of 'American Gothic.' His work was compared to that of Shakespeare and Poe" (Davis, Charles Addams). Addams' cartoons "brought a touch of ghoulishness to The New Yorker's glossy pages for five decades… The Addams cartoon household went on to reach an even broader public when it became the basis for The Addams Family, the 1960s television comedy series," as well as the popular films and Broadway musical (New York Times).

Book fine; slight edge-wear to near-fine dust jacket.