David Letterman, Scold of the 0.1 Percent Bruce McCall An illustration from "This Land Was Made for You and Me (but Mostly Me)," a book of satire by Bruce McCall and David Letterman. David Letterman is not only an author of "This Land Was Made for You and Me (but Mostly Me)," a new humor book he created with Bruce McCall. He is also a target of its pointed populist satire, and he knows it. "We're at the top of the list of dopes with too much money, who go to Montana and buy up land," Mr. Letterman, the longtime host of CBS's "Late Show," said recently, referring to himself and the few people who can call themselves his economic peers. But there is a different view of it, hopefully, that some of us have not fallen prey to. "This Land," which Blue Rider Press will release on Tuesday, and which bears the mocking subtitle "Billionaires in the Wild," contains dozens of Mr. McCall's quietly absurdist paintings, depicting nonexistent monuments to extravagant modern-day wealth: a hunting lodge with an indoor airport, a ski chalet hurtling down a snow-covered mountain on a set of giant metal runners. The art is accompanied by descriptions of fictional moguls and their irresponsible indulgences, like the "pharmaceutical patent fixer" who painted an entire river to match the clothing worn by his new wife, "the only former groin model to market her own line of eco-friendly sex toys." Though much of this writing is Mr. McCall's, "This Land" has a lot to say about Mr. Letterman, an enigmatic figure who rarely expresses himself outside of his late-night show, but who recognizes the book as a vehicle for ideas - about this country and about himself - that he cannot necessarily get across in his TV gig. Mr. Letterman, 66, was dressed in casual clothes as he relaxed last week in the "Late Show" offices above the Ed Sullivan Theater. Despite a longstanding reputation for reticence, he was in an animated mood as he spoke about Mr. McCall, a New Yorker contributor and cover artist whose work he has admired since his 1970s-era illustrations in National Lampoon. The idea of coaxing a new book out of Mr. McCall seemed like a violation to him. This is partly because, Mr. Letterman said, he regards Mr. McCall's satirical writing and illustrations as if they were sacred documents - "This guy is Mount Olympus," he said of Mr. McCall - and partly because he was not thinking of anyone's gratification but his own in pursuing the project. "This was a totally selfish endeavor on my part," Mr. Letterman said. In a telephone interview, Mr. McCall, 78, described himself and Mr. Letterman as kindred spirits who share "a certain skepticism about the nobility of the human race." Mr. Letterman "still thinks of himself as being outside the mainstream," Mr. McCall said. He really doesn't feel part of the wider world. But Mr. Letterman is also a prosperous entertainer with annual earnings of $42 million, according to Forbes. In addition to an estate in Westchester County, N.Y., he owns a Montana ranch on the Rocky Mountain Front, where he goes to relax and fret about the excesses of other zillionaires. As one such example, Mr. Letterman pointed to the 17,000-acre Colorado getaway of the fashion designer Ralph Lauren and its 30-mile-long teakwood fence. ("It's a three-rail fence," Mr. Letterman said. "That's 90 miles of teakwood the guy's got.") There was also the Resort at Paws Up in Montana, which has helped popularize an especially cosseted form of the luxury outdoorsmanship known as glamping. "They have Wi-Fi in the tepees," Mr. Letterman said, exaggerating slightly. "The more you looked around, the more you realized: "Oh my God, this exists. These guys have gone nuts." " While riding horses with friends on his ranch, Mr. Letterman said he would riff about an imaginary one-million-acre estate in Manitoba called the "Triple-XL," established by "a guy who had made lots of money in nonslip rubber place mats he sold to Friendly's." Mr. Letterman began pitching his flights of fancy to Mr. McCall, using Mr. McCall's daughter, Amanda, an author and former "Late Show" staff member, as a go-between. Ms. McCall said in a telephone interview that her role in the project had been as "the courier and conveyor of excitement for two guys that use 19th-century methods of communication." Mr. McCall did much of the writing for "This Land," with Mr. Letterman providing ideas, edits and suggestions for fine tuning. Mr. McCall said he expanded on Mr. Letterman's imaginary depredations to include "not just American slobs but Russian oligarchs, Chinese industrialists, French narcissists." Mr. McCall said he did not see any hypocrisy in someone as well off as Mr. Letterman taking comedic aim at issues of financial inequity and wealth distribution. "George Soros is a liberal, too," he said. You don't have to be stupid and poor to be a liberal. But Mr. Letterman admitted to a certain cognitive dissonance underlying his involvement in "This Land."