And what literary masterpiece would that be? What amazing written work of genius delivered from the very soul of some laboring writer is it? What novel--what book of poetry--what collection of plays--what slim, desirous book of intellect will English majors drool over?
Why, of course, it's a copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America!
(Somewhere Thomas Pynchon is clutching his chest.)
That's right, folks--an illustrated book which measures 3ft by 2ft (so as to accommodate life-sized paintings) about birds brings in the big bucks. How big bucks are we talking? Try upwards of $9.2 million. Meanwhile, a First Folio of Shakespeare from 1623 will be up for auction that same day. It's expected to get around $1.5 million.
Would it have killed Shakespeare to have created a talking flamingo character? Maybe a dancing emu? A penguin doing anything? Penguins sell. Everyone knows that, and that's one bird Audobon's book lacks. If Shakespeare had the foresight to think 400 years in the future, he wouldn't be trailing behind.
So we're left with a book of illustrated birds. There's no word on whether it includes a pictorial spread of Daffy Duck in his natural habitat, but here's to fingers crossed.
That's right, folks--an illustrated book which measures 3ft by 2ft (so as to accommodate life-sized paintings) about birds brings in the big bucks. How big bucks are we talking? Try upwards of $9.2 million. Meanwhile, a First Folio of Shakespeare from 1623 will be up for auction that same day. It's expected to get around $1.5 million.
Would it have killed Shakespeare to have created a talking flamingo character? Maybe a dancing emu? A penguin doing anything? Penguins sell. Everyone knows that, and that's one bird Audobon's book lacks. If Shakespeare had the foresight to think 400 years in the future, he wouldn't be trailing behind.
So we're left with a book of illustrated birds. There's no word on whether it includes a pictorial spread of Daffy Duck in his natural habitat, but here's to fingers crossed.
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