ARCHIVE OF 17 LETTERS

1974 - 1978. Letter. Fine. Superb collection of letters by the great humorist late in life (He died in 1979) all addressed to "Diane" [Diane Daniels, whom Perelman dated after the death in 1970 of his wife, Laura, sister of Nathaniel West, from 1974 until the beginning of 1979 when she became engaged to another man]. There are 13 single-spaced typed letters and 4 handwritten letters, all SIGNED, usually as "Sid," totaling 34 pages and thousands of words. Most of these letters were published in DON'T TREAD ON ME: THE SELECTED LETTERS OF S. J. PERELMAN (edited by Prudence Crowther), but none in full with much excised, especially the erotically frisky passages (truncated) and the politically incorrect slurs and statements. Two of many examples: "I hope your thoughts are impure and totally dedicated to your wandering minstrel, because if they're not, I'll jump on a plane to Kennedy first thing tomorrow morning, strip off your clothes, and paddle your ass. After that, assuming that this gives us both a pleasant glow, we can turn to other matters--involved with the same portions of our anatomy." "My last letter to you was handwritten in the lobby of the Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan, Iran, on July 25, two days before I flew off to Bangkok, and I hope you received it because the two Iranian girls at the cigar counter whom I paid for the stamps I didn't see (and who assured me they'd mail it next day) looked as though they planned to pocket the cash instead. If they did, I hope they read the letter, which would have made their vulvas water." Most of the letters were written during Perelman's travels overseas and were sent from various places including Italy, Greece, Pakistan, Iran, Malaysia, and elsewhere. Frisky, hilariously funny, every paragraph quotable (“Arrived by plane fragile as a Nabisco”). Parts of his description of the Paris-Peking road race and peripheral adventures (a tiled hotel bathroom wall in Iran thunderously collapsing where he was just sitting) are repeated in his published work, notably in THE LAST LAUGH. With a 1990 receipt from Profiles in History.

Sidney Joseph Perelman was an American humorist and screenwriter, best known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for THE NEW YORKER. He is also noted for co-writing scripts for the Marx Brothers films MONKEY BUSINESS (1931) and HORSE FEATHERS (1932), as well as winning an Academy Award for the screenplay of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956). (Inventory #: 021810)