Really Great Gatsby

As Jeffrey Trachtenberg reports on the WSJ books blog, last week a 1925 edition of the Great Gatsby, with its vintage surrealist jacket, sold at auction for $180,000. The now famous “Celestial Eyes” painting is by the Spanish-born artist Francis Cugat. New copies of the book with the same design (albeit reduced and in paper) are available for 75 cents. That’s deflation.