Best of
Humor

1958

What Do You Say, Dear? A Book of Manners for All Occasions


Sesyle Joslin - 1958
    What do you say when:- you bump into a crocodile on a crowded city street?- a nice gentleman introduces you to a baby elephant?- the Queen feeds you so much spaghetti that you don't fit in your chair anymore?This is the funniest book of manners you'll ever read!

The Object-Lesson


Edward Gorey - 1958
    A missing artificial limb, ghostly spectres and the statue of Corrupted Endeavour all have a place in this enigmatic tale, which combines elements of French surrealism, Japanese haiku and lots of good fun. With its humorous obscurity and puzzling intrigues, The Object Lesson delights and provokes.

The Most Of S.J.Perelman


S.J. Perelman - 1958
    This definitive collection brings together the finest of Sidney Joseph Perelman's comic writings, satires and parodies, from The Customer is Always Wrong and Boy Meets Gull to Is There an Osteosynchrondroitrician in the House? and The Pants Recaptured.

The Space Child's Mother Goose


Frederick Winsor - 1958
    Accompanied by clever black & white line drawings by Marian Parry.

The Darling Buds of May


H.E. Bates - 1958
    Charlton from a undernourished and timid tax clerk to ‘Charlie’, a fully-converted member of the Larkin way of life: an easygoing celebration of nature, food, drink, and family. In the process, the reader is introduced to the Brigadier, Miss Pilchester, and Angela Snow. Setting the style for the series, the book ends with a grand celebration, and the announcement of the wedding of Charlie and Mariette. The novel was filmed with the title ‘The Mating Game’, and between 1991 and 1993, Yorkshire Television produced a highly-successful television series called ‘The Darling Buds of May’. This first book in the Larkin series was very successful, appearing first in the United States and then in Britain, where it sold 40,000 in the first two months. Many critics felt that Bates deserved better than to be remembered mostly for the Larkin novels, but they were very profitable. The immensely popular Larkin series of comic novels consisted of ‘The Darling Buds of May’, ‘A Breath of French Air’ (1959), ‘When the Green Woods Laugh’ (1960), ‘Oh! To Be in England’ (1963), and ‘A Little of What You Fancy’ (1970). Bates, speaking of how he was inspired to create the Larkins, recalled the real junkyard that he often passed near his home in Kent; and he remembered seeing a family -- a father, mother and many children, sucking at ice-creams and eating crisps in a "ramshackle lorry that had been recently painted a violent electric blue". He tried writing a brief tale based on the family, but soon decided that he couldn’t waste such a rich gallery of characters to a short story." Pop is a wonderful character who hates pomp, pretension and humbug; loves his family, but doesn’t hesitate to break a few rules... and his and the Larkins' secret is “that they live as many of us would like to live if only we had the guts and nerve to flout the conventions." See also the Pop Larkin Chronicles, which contains all five Larkin books.

Mamma's Boarding House


John D. Fitzgerald - 1958
    A scarce Fitzgerald title.

The Space Willies / Six Worlds Yonder


Eric Frank Russell - 1958
    But it was also understood that when a really dangerous job had to be done, a scout-pilot was the man to do it.So for John Leeming, a couple of months of dodging death in a one-man ship, zipping in and out of the enemy Combine's rearguard, was just another one of those jobs. And there was no man in the Universe more surprised than Leeming when his heretofore indestructible ship just gave up the ghost smack in the middle of a Combine-held prison planet!It was then that the spirit of the Scout Corps had its chance to shine. With self-confidence as his only weapon, Leeming had only two choices: give in to the enemy and be captured...or quick-talk them into a real case of THE SPACE WILLIE!

Encounters with Animals


Gerald Durrell - 1958
    This was unfortunate, because most of my luggage consisted of about two hundred odd cages of assorted wildlife . . .' Gerald Durrell's accounts of the animals he encountered on his travels were some of the first widely shared descriptions of the world's most extraordinary animals. Moving from the West Coast of Africa to the northern tip of South America - and elsewhere - Durrell observes the courtships, wars and characters of a variety of creatures, from birds of paradise, to ants and anteaters, among others.

Selected Short Stories


P.G. Wodehouse - 1958
    Wodehouse was at work on his 97th novel. This unique writer of social comedy, with his outlandish humor and sharp caricatures of English types, was born in 1881 in Guildford, England. In novels and short stories, he created such memorable characters as Psmith and Jeeves, the archetypical Edwardian drone and his butler.The universality of his appeal is demonstrated in these six stories: "Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend," "Jeeves and the Yuletide Spirit," "Ukridge's Accident Syndicate," "Mulliner's Buck U Uppo," "Anselm Gets His Chance" and "The Clicking of Cuthbert" (a golfer's delight).

A Treasury of Damon Runyon


Damon Runyon - 1958
    

It All Started With Marx: A Brief And Objective History Of Russian Communism, The Objective Being To Leave Not One Stone, But Many, Unturned, To State ... Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev, And Others


Richard Armour - 1958
    

Treasury of Wit and Humor


Reader's Digest Association - 1958
    

The Galilee Hitch-Hiker


Richard Brautigan - 1958
    It was Brautigan's second poetry book publication.All nine parts of The Galilee Hitch-Hiker were collected and reprinted in The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster. All Nine parts also available online at http://www.brautigan.net/galilee.html

Boswell's Life of Boswell


Evelyn Leavens - 1958
    See the long out of print book here:http://www.basset.net/bostop.html

Mad for Keeps a collection of the best from Mad Magazine


Al Feldstein - 1958
    Melvin of the Apes and Sound Effects are printed in color.

Tentative Description of a Dinner Given to Promote the Impeachment of President Eisenhower


Lawrence Ferlinghetti - 1958
    

Easy to See Why


Fred Gwynne - 1958
    But the unpedigreed pooch is competing against some very people-like dogs that are owned by very dog-like people! Luckily, a surprise ending saves the day. Full color.

Dennis the Menace: Teacher's Threat


Hank Ketcham - 1958
    More chapion chucklebusters from America's Prince of Mischief

The Pig in the Barber Shop


H. Allen Smith - 1958
    

The Goon Show: Moriarty Where Are You?


NOT A BOOK - 1958
    Four famous episodes of this classic radio comedy from the 1950s: "The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler from Bexhill-on-Sea," "The Histories of Pliny the Elder," "The Jet-Propelled NAAFI," and "The Evils of Bushey Spon," starring Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Michael Bentine.