BUTLER, ELLIS PARKER. Autograph manuscript signed of the American humor classic Pigs Is Pigs (here entitled "The Dago Pig Episode"), [Flushing, N.Y., 1905]. 24 pages, 4to, about 4000 words in dark brown ink on rectos of lined sheets, pinned together at upper left corners, first page slightly darkened, small tear across two words in another page, a working draft with extensive revisions (particularly deletions) by the author, the original title "Guinea Pigs in Pawn" crossed through by him, signed in full at end, in green paper folder labelled by Butler; in brown cloth folding case with the following items: (1) Typescript signed of Butler's essay "The Story of Pigs-Is-Pigs," Housatonic, Mass. 8 July 1936, 13 pages, 4to, double-spaced, signed and dated at end (with a humorous drawing of a pig), an unpublished account of the inception, writing and subsequent publication of Pigs Is Pigs, with a funny description of the difficulties he went through in naming the story (the original title "Guinea Pigs in Pawn" became "The Dago Pig Episode" -- as can be seen above -- and then, after hesitating over "Dogs Is Dogs," the author hit on the eminently quotable "Pigs Is Pigs"); (2) Typed letter signed from Witter Bynner (then an editor at McClure, Phillips) to Butler, New York, 17 April 1906, 1 page, 4to, sending six copies of the McClure, Phillips first regularly published edition of Pigs Is Pigs and commenting on the sales; (3) Five letters and two notes of others relating to Pigs Is Pigs (tracing provenance, discussing publishing the typescript, etc.) and two typed copies of the above typescript."PIGS IS PIGS"Butler's once wildly popular story is about an express agent's hilarious predicament of having a consignment of endlessly multiplying guinea pigs -- a situation caused by his thinking that a "guinea" pig was your usual everyday domestic ("Italian") pig and his wanting to charge the higher rate for a shipment of two: "[The agent Mike] Flannery was stubborn. 'Pigs is pigs,' he declared firmly. 'Guinea pigs, or dago pigs or Irish pigs is all the same to the Interurban Expriss [sic] Company an' to Mike Flannery. Th' nationality of the pig creates no differentiality in the rate..." Butler's comic high-spot first appeared in the first issue of the American Magazine, October 1905; it was then issued in pamphlet form -- in two editions totalling 60,000 copies -- by the Railway Appliances Company in Chicago, 1905-1906; since then it has sold more than a million copies in numerous editions.

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

BUTLER, ELLIS PARKER. Autograph manuscript signed of the American humor classic Pigs Is Pigs (here entitled "The Dago Pig Episode"), [Flushing, N.Y., 1905]. 24 pages, 4to, about 4000 words in dark brown ink on rectos of lined sheets, pinned together at upper left corners, first page slightly darkened, small tear across two words in another page, a working draft with extensive revisions (particularly deletions) by the author, the original title "Guinea Pigs in Pawn" crossed through by him, signed in full at end, in green paper folder labelled by Butler; in brown cloth folding case with the following items: (1) Typescript signed of Butler's essay "The Story of Pigs-Is-Pigs," Housatonic, Mass. 8 July 1936, 13 pages, 4to, double-spaced, signed and dated at end (with a humorous drawing of a pig), an unpublished account of the inception, writing and subsequent publication of Pigs Is Pigs, with a funny description of the difficulties he went through in naming the story (the original title "Guinea Pigs in Pawn" became "The Dago Pig Episode" -- as can be seen above -- and then, after hesitating over "Dogs Is Dogs," the author hit on the eminently quotable "Pigs Is Pigs"); (2) Typed letter signed from Witter Bynner (then an editor at McClure, Phillips) to Butler, New York, 17 April 1906, 1 page, 4to, sending six copies of the McClure, Phillips first regularly published edition of Pigs Is Pigs and commenting on the sales; (3) Five letters and two notes of others relating to Pigs Is Pigs (tracing provenance, discussing publishing the typescript, etc.) and two typed copies of the above typescript. "PIGS IS PIGS" Butler's once wildly popular story is about an express agent's hilarious predicament of having a consignment of endlessly multiplying guinea pigs -- a situation caused by his thinking that a "guinea" pig was your usual everyday domestic ("Italian") pig and his wanting to charge the higher rate for a shipment of two: "[The agent Mike] Flannery was stubborn. 'Pigs is pigs,' he declared firmly. 'Guinea pigs, or dago pigs or Irish pigs is all the same to the Interurban Expriss [sic] Company an' to Mike Flannery. Th' nationality of the pig creates no differentiality in the rate..." Butler's comic high-spot first appeared in the first issue of the American Magazine, October 1905; it was then issued in pamphlet form -- in two editions totalling 60,000 copies -- by the Railway Appliances Company in Chicago, 1905-1906; since then it has sold more than a million copies in numerous editions.

Details

BUTLER, ELLIS PARKER. Autograph manuscript signed of the American humor classic Pigs Is Pigs (here entitled "The Dago Pig Episode"), [Flushing, N.Y., 1905]. 24 pages, 4to, about 4000 words in dark brown ink on rectos of lined sheets, pinned together at upper left corners, first page slightly darkened, small tear across two words in another page, a working draft with extensive revisions (particularly deletions) by the author, the original title "Guinea Pigs in Pawn" crossed through by him, signed in full at end, in green paper folder labelled by Butler; in brown cloth folding case with the following items: (1) Typescript signed of Butler's essay "The Story of Pigs-Is-Pigs," Housatonic, Mass. 8 July 1936, 13 pages, 4to, double-spaced, signed and dated at end (with a humorous drawing of a pig), an unpublished account of the inception, writing and subsequent publication of Pigs Is Pigs, with a funny description of the difficulties he went through in naming the story (the original title "Guinea Pigs in Pawn" became "The Dago Pig Episode" -- as can be seen above -- and then, after hesitating over "Dogs Is Dogs," the author hit on the eminently quotable "Pigs Is Pigs"); (2) Typed letter signed from Witter Bynner (then an editor at McClure, Phillips) to Butler, New York, 17 April 1906, 1 page, 4to, sending six copies of the McClure, Phillips first regularly published edition of Pigs Is Pigs and commenting on the sales; (3) Five letters and two notes of others relating to Pigs Is Pigs (tracing provenance, discussing publishing the typescript, etc.) and two typed copies of the above typescript.

"PIGS IS PIGS"

Butler's once wildly popular story is about an express agent's hilarious predicament of having a consignment of endlessly multiplying guinea pigs -- a situation caused by his thinking that a "guinea" pig was your usual everyday domestic ("Italian") pig and his wanting to charge the higher rate for a shipment of two: "[The agent Mike] Flannery was stubborn. 'Pigs is pigs,' he declared firmly. 'Guinea pigs, or dago pigs or Irish pigs is all the same to the Interurban Expriss [sic] Company an' to Mike Flannery. Th' nationality of the pig creates no differentiality in the rate..." Butler's comic high-spot first appeared in the first issue of the American Magazine, October 1905; it was then issued in pamphlet form -- in two editions totalling 60,000 copies -- by the Railway Appliances Company in Chicago, 1905-1906; since then it has sold more than a million copies in numerous editions.