A Child's Garden of Graffiti

1971, possibly first edition, from Random House
Compiled by Thomas W. Tickell
A Child's Garden of Graffiti
Original and purchase price unknown
Worn hardcover
C+

Don't let the title fool you, as it did me when I bought it in my early teens.  With lines like "Rape is impolite" and "The burn-the-bra movement is an awful letdown," this is not meant for children.  Even the section on nursery rhymes tells us, "The Little Old Lady who lived in the shoe recommends the Pill," "Jack Spratt was a wife-swapper," and "Mother Goose loves to be."

The various "graffiti" look like four or five different fonts in red or black superimposed onto pictures of walls, traffic signs, a bench, and a fire hydrant.  I don't know if these were actual messages Tickell "compiled" or if he came up with them himself.  The book does offer a snapshot of its time, with references to Spiro Agnew, Elizabeth Taylor, and Allen Ginsberg, among others, although there's little or no drug humor.  It's mostly corny-hip sex jokes, like things the Laugh-In writers couldn't get on the air.  Possibly the quickest read of any of my books so far.

This takes me to 400 posts.  As of The Singing Sands (1952), the stats stood as follows:

1 F
3 F+s
2 D-s
5 D's
9 D+s
11 C-s
17 C's
48 C+s
92 B-s
76 B's
30 B+s
6 A-s

Again, fortunately nothing new for the lowest ranks, but The Golden Notebook is the first new D+ since The Wonder City of Oz.  (And I know which of the two I'd much rather reread.)  There are 4 more each of C-s and C's.  C+s climb to 73 and both B-s and B's make it to three digits, 126 and 101 respectively.  There are 7 new B+s but I haven't seen an A- since Right Ho, Jeeves (1934).  Hopefully that will change as we get deeper into the 1970s.