This should have been a better book, it is a classy looking hard cover book from The Dial Press but instead of all color pictures it only has 14 of them in a book with 166 pages.

The choice of which will be shown in color is odd, some people have lots shown, most none and there is a pointless color full page picture of Kathryn Crosby (the late Bing Crosby’s wife). I wonder why. Also one of Russell Lynes. I have no idea who he is but he is, by far, the best needlepointer in here.

I apologize for my pictures. Some of them were taken in the proper way with the right lights and all and some of them were “snapped” in my office tonight at 2am. It is easy to see which are which.

The celebrities included are (in the order they are in the book):

Claire Bloom: The actress has a wonderful pillow she needlepointed based on the famous LOVE painting by Robert Indiana lithograph

Rocky Cooper Converse & Maria Cooper Janis. The daughters of Gary Cooper. Maria Janis is shown doing a pretty needlepoint rug but other then that, there stuff is all “cowboy themed”. I guess they have watched many of GC’s fine westerns.

Next is Kathryn Crosby. Her work does not impress me but it must have had some ….something on somebody. There are 3 pictures of one of the canvases as well as the color one of her.

Next is Ann B. Davis. Her claim to fame is playing the housekeeper on The Brady Bunch. The only needlepoint shown here is in B&W, it is her “director’s chair” canvas for the chair she sits on on the set. it has the 8 Brady kids as stick figures and her as a stick figure in an apron. (I don’t make this stuff up)

Julie Eisenhower’s needlepoint which she stitched for her sister, Tricia. This work is shown in full color on the title page but in B&W here. It is perfectly good amateur looking work.

Joan Fontaine stitched this messy looking design. I can’t tell you much about it, this is the only picture.

Betty Furness (I have a vague memory she was on a lot of game shows or something) at least is a real stitcher. She stitched this rug. I wish there was a big picture of this and not Kathryn Crosby. She also stitches Bargello. I wish these were in color too. I suspect she is very good.

Let’s please skip Hermione Gingold with her series of 4 butterfly pillows. They are probably just fine. She did some floral rugs too.

We come to Princess Garce of Monaco was was known as a stitcher. There is a gorgeous picture of her and a vest she stitched for her husband, Prince Rainier. I wish I could see this in color too.

Rosey Grier gives a nice plug to the needlepoint shop he used in LA. He did these ducks. The B&W picture does nothing for them.

I am getting bored with this, let’s skip ahead to the “notables” on the list. Does anyone Remember who Melanie Kahane is or Abbe Lane? Not me.

Janet Leigh’s work maybe be very good. One can’t tell from this terrible B&W picture.

Now, as I said, Russell Lynes, who ever he is, is the best stitcher in this book. This is done using a Pointillist technique.

Meredith MacRae. I barely remember her either but at least her Bargello is photographed in color.

Dina Merrill, Classy lady, good actress. Interesting pillows. (as I sigh) Color, they need color.

Now, Mary Tyler Moore is well known as a avid stitcher. I once saw a picture of a couch whose cushions she stitched in a bold graphic color design.
This is all the book had for MTM.

Mollie Parnis, who stitched these slippers for President Johnson. I am sure they are fine, I could have lived my whole life happily never having seen them.

Roberta Peters, good thing she sings better then she stitches.

The last chapter is called US Cabinet Wives” There are no needlepoints shown but Martha Mitchell is mentioned and this picture of Mrs. Richard Nixon and Mrs. Spiro Agnew.

I don’t know about you but I felt (and still feel) terribly sorry for Pat Nixon. Imagine being married to Richard Nixon and living that awful political life, which she reportedly hated and never wanted.

What else? I have finally given up on trying to save some of the worst of the paper Dust Jackets on some of the (old) rare & hard-to-find books that I sell on NewNeedlepoint.com.

Many of them are not worth the effort. What decided me was a terribly yellowed and very foxed on the inside dust jacket on a book that was otherwise in Very Good Condition. I asked myself, why am I doing this?

Why would I want to risk the condition of this nice book by keeping it and storing it until it sells inside this disgusting dust jacket.

In the future, I will fix and save what is worth fixing and saving of the dust jackets but no more heroic measures and keeping ICKY ones on otherwise good books.

I know this flies counter to accepted used book value practices but if I don’t want to touch it, why would you?

I am currently taking a break from my unexpected and unusual Regency & Romance reading and went back to my bookcase. I pulled out a collection of stories by Shirley Jackson.

She was a great and subtle writer. Most people only know her from her famous short story “The Lottery” and it deserves to be as famous as it is.

I am also a fan of her short novel “The Bird’s Nest” and of course, her other books. Reading Shirley Jackson, Dorothy Parker, Fay Weldon, Susan Hill, Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell’s alter ego) and Robert Parker et al is more what I am used to reading.

I am not sure where this sentimental reading jag came from but it is clearly not over yet.

I was very sad to hear about Robert Parker’s death recently. I once, briefly, worked at Kate’s Mystery Books, a famous Cambridge, MA book store. All the shelves there had been built by her friend Robert Parker. They were great shelves.

I did not last long at Kate’s. She could not get the idea that if I had to pick up my son at school at 3:30 that did not mean 4:000 and the teachers did not appreciate it that Kate just couldn’t get back to relieve me in time, just couldn’t.

I am not going to sell Celebrity Needlepoint on my web store. I do not think the book is worth even what I paid for it.

Had the pictures all been in color it would have been.