Less Than Nothing

“Is somnia a chronic condition with you?” Early in his career American author E. B. White (1899-1985), now best known for Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web, wrote his first book anonymously for The New Yorker magazine just two years after its founding. Published as a giveaway to subscribers and advertisers of the magazine, the book was a series of short comic episodes of the invented characters, Sterling and Flora Finny, represented by photographs of mannequins from the Wanamaker department store. Sterling and Flora are often inept such as when Sterling loses an opportunity at a promotion because he is sleeping. In this instance, the book’s advertisement notes that one only need subscribe to The New Yorker to avoid having to sleep at all and stay awake indefinitely. Subscribing to The New Yorker can solve all one’s problems! The Smithsonian Libraries owns a perfect copy of the first edition with original batik covers.