FOOTNOTES FROM THE MOST FASCINATING MUSEUMS by Bob Eckstein

(Princeton Architectural Press, May 2024)

A beautiful, smart, entertaining new art book from New Yorker cartoonist and author Bob Eckstein that is a love letter to museums and museum-goers, filled with lush and whimsical illustrations paired with stories and anecdotes from curators, museum workers, museum visitors, and more.

Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums is a collection of the greatest and most beloved museums of North America, illustrated and explored through fun and fascinating anecdotes. Curated by Bob Eckstein, author of the New York Times bestseller Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores, this delightful twist on an art history book shows these institutes in a way not seen before, illustrated in a lush and idealized style.

The 75+ museums featured include the biggest and boldest names (MoMA, the Whitney) and the more offbeat (Museum of Bad Art, the Museum of Jurassic Technology). They span the US, Canada, and Mexico and include those specializing in art, natural history, academia and science, and more. The 155 original pieces of artwork illustrate a story about the museum or showcase a particular work of art in its collection.

Featured museums include:

The Field Museum, Chicago
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA
The National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC
La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Museum of Motherhood, St. Petersburg, Florida
Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City, Mexico
American Museum of Natural History, New York
And many more

A perfect gift for artists, art lovers, students, travelers, and adventurers of all ages, this collection of funny, heartfelt, and quirky profiles is a thought-provoking, inspiring celebration of museums, why we go to them, and why we love them so much.

Bob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator, writer, and cartoonist for the New Yorker, New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Smithsonian Magazine, Atlas Obscura, and many others. His Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores was a New York Times bestseller and made many “Best Of” 2016 lists and continues to be an “Amazon Most Wished for Title” years later. A postcard set based on that book was published in 2018. He is also the author of The History of the Snowman, The Illustrated History of the Snowman, and The Complete Book of Cat Names (That Your Cat Won’t Answer to Anyway). He was editor for The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons series and is contributing editor for Writer’s Digest. He lives in New York City. For more on Bob please visit his website.

Filed Under: Illustrators, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

The Complete Book of Cat Names by Bob Eckstein

(That Your Cat Won’t Answer to, Anyway)
(Countryman Press, 2022)

Naming a cat is the most important step in your kitten’s life―New Yorker cartoonist Bob Eckstein can help.

Reader, beware! A cat’s name will set the tone for the rest of their personal and professional life. Recent studies from dubious cat blogs have shown that 80 percent of cat owners regret the name they gave their feline friends. The number one reason: it became too popular. Fear not. Whether the goal is a name to carry on family tradition or to find something new and different, The Complete Book of Cat Names is packed with options, along with all-new, cat-themed cartoons by Eckstein, making this crucial step in owning a pet a pleasure.

Here, you will find the most popular cat names (to avoid), bookstore cat names (Homer or Pip), cat names for foodies (S’more or Capers), James Bond villain cats (Golden Paws or Jinx), and many more. In addition, Eckstein provides handy charts for identifying a cat’s type (inside or outside, sassy or sweet). It’s the perfect gift for any cat owner.

Bob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator and writer for The New Yorker, New York Times, and others. He is the author of Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores, The Ultimate Cartoon Book of Cartoons, and more. He lives in New York. For more on Bob Eckstein please visit bobeckstein.com.

Filed Under: Fiction & Humor, Illustrators Tagged With: ,

The Illustrated History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein

(Globe Pequot, Fall 2018)

A thoroughly entertaining exploration, this book travels back in time to shed light on the snowman’s enigmatic past — from the present day, in which the snowman reigns as the King of Kitsch, to the Dark Ages, with the creation of the very first snowman. Eckstein’s curiosity began playfully enough, but soon snowballed into a (mostly) earnest quest of chasing Frosty around the world, into museums and libraries, and seeking out the advice of leading historians and scholars. The result is a riveting history that reaches back through centuries and across cultures — sweeping from fifteenth-century Italian snowballs to eighteenth-century Russian ice sculptures to the regrettable “white-trash years” (1975-2000). The snowman is not just part of our childhood memories, but is an integral part of our world culture, appearing — much like a frozen Forrest Gump — alongside dignitaries and celebrities during momentous events. Again and again, the snowman pops up in rare prints, paintings, early movies, advertising and, over the past century, in every art form imaginable. And the jolly snowman — ostensibly as pure as the driven snow — also harbors a dark past full of political intrigue, sex, and violence.

With over two hundred illustrations, The Illustrated History of the Snowman is a truly original winter classic — smart, surprisingly enlightening, and quite simply the coolest book ever.

Bob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator, writer, New Yorker cartoonist, snowman expert, and author of the New York Times bestselling Footnotes from the Greatest Bookstores (Clarkson Potter) and The History of the Snowman (Simon & Schuster). His cartoons, OpEds, and short stories appear regularly in the New York Times, New York Daily News, MAD magazine, Barron’s, Readers Digest, The Spectator, Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, among many others. He was a columnist for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, and Time Out New York. He has been interviewed in over 100 TV, radio and magazine spots including Good Morning America and People magazine.

For more on Bob Eckstein, please visit Bob Eckstein is an award-winning illustrator, writer, New Yorker cartoonist, snowman expert, and author of the New York Times bestselling Footnotes from the Greatest Bookstores (Clarkson Potter) and The History of the Snowman (Simon & Schuster). His cartoons, OpEds, and short stories appear regularly in the New York Times, New York Daily News, MAD magazine, Barron’s, Readers Digest, The Spectator, Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Playboy, among many others. He was a columnist for the Village Voice, New York Newsday, and Time Out New York. He has been interviewed in over 100 TV, radio and magazine spots including Good Morning America and People magazine.

For more on Bob Eckstein please visit bobeckstein.com.

Filed Under: Illustrators, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

Footnotes from The World’s Greatest Bookstores by Bob Eckstein

bobecksteinNew York Times Bestseller

Foreword by Garrison Keillor
(Clarkson Potter, October 2016)

The local bookshop is the heart and soul of a community—each one unique, each one filled with local characters, legendary stories, surprising quirks, and comfortable charm—as readers, we cherish them as sanctuaries for learning and dreaming.

In Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores, beloved New Yorker cartoonist Bob Eckstein has gathered the greatest untold stories from a seventy-five of the world’s most renowned bookstores (both past and present) and paired them with evocative color illustrations of each shop. Here is a portrait of our lifelong love affair with bookstores that is at once heartfelt, bittersweet, and filled with good cheer.

Bob Eckstein has been a humor writer for more than twenty years, and is most recognized for his popular weekly columns in Newsday, the Village Voice, and now, TimeOut. His cartoons and artwork have also appeared in publications like The New Yorker, the New York Times, Spy magazine, and Details. He is also the author of The History of the Snowman. He splits his time between his studios in Manhattan and Pennsylvania.

Filed Under: Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,

History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein

Who made the first snowman? Who first came up with the idea of placing snowballs on top of each other, and who decided they would use a carrot for a nose? Most puzzling of all: How can this mystery ever be solved, with all the evidence long since melted?
The snowman appears everywhere on practically everything — from knickknacks to greeting cards to seasonal sweaters we plan to return. Whenever we see big snowballs our first impulse is to deck them out with a top hat. Humorist and writer Bob Eckstein has long been fascinated by this ubiquitous symbol of wintertime fun — and finally, for the first time, one of the world’s most popular icons gets his due.

A thoroughly entertaining exploration, The History of the Snowman travels back in time to shed light on the snowman’s enigmatic past — from the present day, in which the snowman reigns as the King of Kitsch, to the Dark Ages, with the creation of the very first snowman. Eckstein’s curiosity began playfully enough, but soon snowballed into a (mostly) earnest quest of chasing Frosty around the world, into museums and libraries, and seeking out the advice of leading historians and scholars. The result is a riveting history that reaches back through centuries and across cultures — sweeping from fifteenth-century Italian snowballs to eighteenth-century Russian ice sculptures to the regrettable “white-trash years” (1975-2000).

The snowman is not just part of our childhood memories, but is an integral part of our world culture, appearing — much like a frozen Forrest Gump — alongside dignitaries and celebrities during momentous events. Again and again, the snowman pops up in rare prints, paintings, early movies, advertising and, over the past century, in every art form imaginable. And the jolly snowman — ostensibly as pure as the driven snow — also harbors a dark past full of political intrigue, sex, and violence.

With more than two hundred illustrations and a special section of the best snowman cartoons, The History of the Snowman is a truly original winter classic — smart, surprisingly enlightening, and quite simply the coolest book ever.

Bob Eckstein has been a humor writer for more than twenty years, and is most recognized for his popular weekly columns in Newsday, the Village Voice, and now, TimeOut. His cartoons and artwork have also appeared in publications like The New Yorker, the New York Times, Spy magazine, and Details. He splits his time between his studios in Manhattan and Pennsylvania.

Filed Under: Illustrators, Narrative Non-Fiction & Memoir Tagged With: ,