WHISTLER, JAMES A. McNEILL]. The Gentle Art of Making Enemies: Edited by Sheridan Ford. New York: Stokes, 1890. Small 8vo, original gray wrappers, printed in red, uncut, ends of spine a bit frayed, inch split in front outer joint at heel of spine; cl...

WHISTLER, JAMES A. McNEILL]. The Gentle Art of Making Enemies: Edited by Sheridan Ford. New York: Stokes, 1890. Small 8vo, original gray wrappers, printed in red, uncut, ends of spine a bit frayed, inch split in front outer joint at heel of spine; cloth folding case. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, unauthorized, comprising sheets of the Paris edition with a new title-page. BAL 21333. [ With: ] WHISTLER, J.A.M. Autograph letter signed (butterfly signature, with a brief sketch of rays and six bags of gold beneath) to "my dear Publishers," Paris, n.d. [1892]. 3 pages, 12mo, in purple ink, tipped into book above. "...No déjeuners. Alas! -- because of an inception of work -- Americans are determined to pour California into my lap! -- and I have a portrait at this moment that I begin tomorrow morning and shall have to stick to steadily for the next ten days when everything goes off in the steamer, excepting the bags of gold left with me! -- After that -- the 'Songs.' You will be pleased to hear also that the cheque for the pot of paint four times over! has been paid into the bank..." Whistler refers to the sale to an American for eight hundred guineas (or "four pots of paint") of his painting The Falling Rocket, the subject of his trial with John Ruskin, who had objected to its original price of two hundred guineas, remarking that it wasn't worth a "pot of paint." See Stanley Weintraub, Whistler (New York, 1974), pp. 370 & 372. (2)