Saturday, June 15, 2024

Charles Addams: Congratulations!

A classic original New Yorker cartoon by Charles Addams was sold last fall at Heritage Auctions. Father's Day weekend seems a good time to dust it off and present it here.
Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21


In the published caption, the punctuation has been cleaned up a bit. The cartoon is reproduced in Brendan Gill's indispensable Here at The New Yorker (1975) in chapter 20. Gill tells an anecdote about a macabre caption which may have been falsely attributed to this very drawing or one like it. I won't repeat it here.
Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21


We learn from the listing that this drawing was in the collection of legendary New Yorker editor Katharine White (1892-1977). It must have been passed down to her son Roger Angell (1920-2022) and been sold off after he passed away.

Charles Addams
Heritage Auctions listing of October 6, 2023




"Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

Published as "Congratulations! It's a baby."
Charles Addams
Original art
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 21

With an illustration by Ludwig Bemelmans and a cartoon by Charles Addams

Heritage is too fond of classifying cartoons as interior illustrations. For the record, here is what should be called an interior illustration:
Illustration for "The Homesick Busboy of the Splendide."
Ludwig Bemelmans
The New Yorker, November 9, 1940, p. 20






04668

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