This is an auction for ARCHY & MEHITABEL, by Don Marquis.

Amazon.com review:

"Of all the literary genres, humour has the shortest shelf life - except for ARCHY AND MEHITABEL, that is. Archy is a cockroach, inside whom resides the soul of a free-verse poet; he communicates with Don Marquis by leaping upon the keys of the columnist's typewriter. In poems of varying length, Archy pithily describes his world, the main fixture of which is Mehitabel, an alley cat. Archy's music will linger in your head long after you finish the book. Here's a taste from his interview with a mummy:

boss i went and interviewed the mummy of the egyptian pharaoh in the metropolitan museum as you bade me to do

what ho my regal leatherface says i

greetings little scatter footed scarab says he

kingly has been says i what was your ambition when you had any

insignificant and journalistic insect says the royal crackling in my tender prime i was too dignified to have anything as vulgar as ambition ...

(For the rest, see https://detritusofempire.blogspot.com/2012/01/archy-cockroach-discovered.html)

From Wikipedia

"Don Marquis (1878–1937) is remembered best for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel, supposed authors of humorous verse... Marquis's best-known creation was Archy, a cockroach who had been a free-verse poet in a previous life, and who supposedly left poems on Marquis's typewriter by jumping on the keys. Archy usually typed only lower-case letters, without punctuation, because he could not operate the shift key. His verses were a type of social satire, and were used by Marquis in his newspaper columns titled "archy and mehitabel"; mehitabel was an alley cat, occasional companion of archy and the subject of some of archy's verses..."

Hardback 1954.

166 pages.

Good condition.

The cost of shipping is $5.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.