'Charlotte's Web' art up for auction

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- More than 40 original illustrations from the beloved children's book "Charlotte's Web" are to be auctioned off next month in New York, organizers said.

The artwork from the estate of illustrator Garth Williams is to be part of Heritage Auctions' Oct. 15 Illustration Art Auction in Manhattan. The original cover art and 44 of the book's 46 interior illustrations will be offered in the auction and sold without reserve.

Published in 1952, "Charlotte's Web" was named the best-selling children's paperback of all time by Publisher's Weekly in 2000. The book is about how a clever spider saves a good-hearted pig from slaughter.

"There are few people born after 1950, maybe even 1940, who are not intimately familiar with E.B. White's timeless story," Barry Sandoval of Heritage Auctions said in a statement, "or with these amazing illustrations. The same cover image has been used for 58 years, and this may be the most-printed cover illustration of any book by an American author."