Peter Arno Illustrates Munro Leaf Condensed Classics in The American Magazine

They're called "streamlined samples of the world's best stories," and they appeared in The American Magazine over twenty-one installments from December 1939 to September 1941. They're humorous rehashings of classic literary works that, because they each appeared on a single magazine page, aren't quite substitutes for reading one's full high school english assignments. The celebrated author of these condensed classics is Munro Leaf, who created Ferdinand the Bull. The celebrated illustrator is Peter Arno, who needs no introduction here.

Two weeks ago I speculated that a couple of original Arno illustrations from, apparently, The American Magazine—they were Ivanhoe and Cyrano de Bergerac—might be related to a page I once posted of an abbreviated version of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. I went on to suggest that they might also be related to four Arno illustrations of "Classics" from his 1944 collection Man in the Shower. I figured it might well take ages to track everything down.

Yet I heard on that very day from Jeff Nelson, one of those contributors who somehow provides me with what I need even when I don't know what I need. Once upon a time, it seems, he had scanned what is likely the entire run of this nearly impossible-to-find series and would I care to have a look-see? Yes, please.

And just like that, here they are—all of them, most probably. I have presented Jeff's scans in chronological order adding original art from the archives when available, and including four of the illustrations as they were reproduced in Man in the Shower. Jeff didn't scan the full text of Robinson Crusoe, but fortunately that's the one page I have available in the archives. So here it is, a post I thought could never be done just two weeks ago.

Romeo and Juliet, December 1939

The Classics:  II. Romeo and Juliet
Peter Arno's Man in the Shower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944, London: Duckworth, 1976)

The Three Musketeers, January 1940

The Classics:  I. The Three Musketeers
Peter Arno's Man in the Shower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944, London: Duckworth, 1976)

Ivanhoe, February 1940

Ivanhoe
Peter Arno
Original art
The American Magazine
February 1940, p. 80

https://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2024/07/peter-arno-rebecca-and-wounded-ivanhoe.html

Rip Van Winkle, March 1940

Robinson Crusoe, April 1940

"There were some wild goats around, but you can't make a wild goat draw to an inside straight." 

—Munro Leaf

Peter Arno

                             Robinson Crusoe, April 1940, p. 60

https://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2013/03/peter-arnos-robinson-crusoe-condensed.html

Don Quixote, May 1940

The Arabian Nights, June 1940

Macbeth, July 1940

The Classics:  III. Macbeth
Peter Arno's Man in the Shower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944, London: Duckworth, 1976)

The Count of Monte Cristo, August 1940

Treasure Island, September 1940

Silas Marner, October 1940

Lorna Doone, November 1940

A Tale of Two Cities, January 1941

The Virginian, February 1941

The House of the Seven Gables, March 1941

Hamlet, April 1941

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, May 1941

The Classics:  IV. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Peter Arno's Man in the Shower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944, London: Duckworth, 1976)

Moby Dick, June 1941

Cyrano de Bergerac, July 1941

Cyrano de Bergerac, 
Peter Arno
Original art
The American Magazine, July 1941, p. 52

https://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2023/12/peter-arno-cyrano-de-bergerac.html

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, August 1941

Captains Courageous, September 1941

Note:  My thanks to Jeff Nelson, without whom Munro Leaf and Peter Arno's collaboration almost eighty-five years ago might have remained lost to posterity.

I'm so glad I could include two of the original illustrations. Where then are the nineteen Arno originals I did not get to post here? As depictions of well-known literary classics, I'd think they're quite desirable. My guess is they're mostly hidden away in private collections. If there's one of these that happens to be in your collection, why not get in touch with me and share a good photograph? Come on, people, Jeff can't do everything.

The Classics:  I. The Three Musketeers
II. Romeo and Juliet
Peter Arno's Man in the Shower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944, London: Duckworth, 1976)

The Classics:  III. Macbeth
IV. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Peter Arno's Man in the Shower (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944, London: Duckworth, 1976)

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Whitney Darrow, Jr.: Out, Out, Damned Spot

"Out, damned spot! out, I say!"

Macbeth, Act V, Scene 1

Today's example of original art by Whitney Darrow, Jr., comes, for once, with a caption written on the illustration board. The original art dates from 1966 and depicts a thespian veterinarian (that's right). In his office, he is treating several dogs but sending one of them away while quoting—actually misquoting—the appropriate Shakespearean line. The file sticker on the back of the art suggests it was created for the client Personna, a purveyor of fine razor blades, but after yesterday's post I'm more inclined to believe it illustrates an "On Campus" column for funnyman Max Shulman.

"Out, out, damned Spot."
Whitney Darrow, Jr.

The signature of Whitney Darrow, Jr.

Whitney Darrow, Jr.
eBay listing ended October 27, 2022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144775015964?hash=item21b5436e1c%3Ag%3ATFgAAOSw5fFjUS5U&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoDUztOfJrMl3to3H7pU08s302Ne8cIkAZZVt7ftH2i5%2F1834wmmSzIXfs0j7Mww7LHRStqGtoCQnzct2P6R7SjbK1qfo8bZGsM%2Bia13BSYh12H0Wn0QxmC9LbLMzBVoXiEhe0vfwUmq3smf3nQYoHtwRhatchZ56Nsg9s9XemSnA%2FpoY3XOgSSpw67FSgnWGJF6GBCpV1z%2BgNoEUJIj7Agk%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-6ygKKxYQ&nma=true&si=64J6TuENCQvl%252FEQuIbsoMEcDQlw%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Whitney Darrow, Jr.
eBay item description

April 8. 2023:  Here we go.

"Once More Unto the Breach"
On Campus with Max Shulman
The Winonan
Winona State College, Winona, MN
October 27, 1966, p. 3

https://openriver.winona.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=thewinonan1960s

"Believe me, some day when you are running a busy kennel, you'll be mighty glad you learned 'Out, damned Spot!'"

"Believe me, some day when you are running a busy kennel, you'll be mighty glad you learned 'Out, damned Spot!'"

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Ronald Searle: Macbeth, or Local Thane Makes Good

Cartoonist Ronald Searle (1920-2011) was born on this day one-hundred two years ago. One of the leading illustrators of his day, he was never know for comics, a  territory into which he seldom ventured. It is exciting to be able to reintroduce an early, forgotten work of his in comic book form, courtesy of Jeff Nelson.

Macbeth, or Local Thane Makes Good, was first published in the Punch issue of November 7, 1949, on pages 32-33. It was later picked up in the American market by the Saturday Review of Literature in the December 2, 1950 issue. After that, it was not collected in any of Searle's collections or anywhere else, for that matter. For all practical purposes, it has been hidden from view for seven decades.

But now all that has changed with this rediscovered two-page satirical comic irreverently riffing on the plot of "MacBeth." Searle's version of the Scottish play doesn't strike one as especially literary, let alone Shakespearean. Rather, it is a deliberately anachronistic and breezy retelling of the plot, which shuns quoting any of the great lines we all remember. In short, this isn't your high school "Macbeth."

Macbeth, or Local Thane Makes Good
Ronald Searle
Saturday Review, December 2, 1950

Image courtesy of Jeff Nelson

More than anything else, these pages recall Capsulysses, Searle's four-page condensed version of Homer's Odyssey written by Richard Usborne. It was published in the Punch number of May 25, 1955. You can read that here.

Note:  My thanks to Jeff Nelson for rescuing this Searle work from seeming obscurity. This is Jeff's ninth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

 

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E. Simms Campbell: Twofers?

...it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance...

—Macbeth, Act II, Scene 3

That, of course, is the Porter elucidating the effects of drink. The reveler in E. Simms Campbell's original cartoon would do well to recall Shakespeare's words as he orders "Two more quarts and two more hostesses!" Still, it must be to his credit that he prefers his female companions to be conscious.

Too many cartoons in this genre present women as commodities to be purchased. Many of the gags in Campbell's popular "Harem Girls" cartoons are overtly based on this suggestion. The humor here derives from drawing an unexpectedly apt parallel between ordering alcohol and ordering hostesses, and more specifically from the idea that a carouser could require refills on both.

We haven't seen too many originals that were actually labelled as such on the matte, but perhaps it's an idea whose time has come; so many eBay sellers can't seem to tell a print from an original. Happily that's not the case with Michelle of Hesse Fine Art, who very reasonably surmises that this original was probably done for Playboy or Esquire. We might be able to tell which by examining the art out of the frame, but who wants to risk harming a period matte that reads (Original).

A few details are worth noting. A screen in part separates this table from the rest of the dining area, affording some privacy. The color of the screen matches the color of the tablecloth in light, whereas the color of the slumping woman's dress matches the color of the tablecloth in shadow. The heads are placed along a straight line, and if one follows this line further there's the shadow of the waiter's head against the screen. The inebriated speaker's hair and his tie are equally disheveled. As if that weren't enough to reveal his condition, the speaker is drawn in the very act of knocking over the flowers.

E. Simms Campbell
"Two more quarts and two more hostesses!"
Original art

E. Simms Campbell
eBay Listing Ended February 24, 2018

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Watercolor-Elmer-E-Simms-Campbell-Painting-Illustration-1950s-Bar-/391981248465?hash=item5b43e72fd1%3Ag%3A3pYAAOSw4DxahH95&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

E. Simms Campbell
eBay Bid History
Ten days, eleven bidders, sixteen bids, and a retraction of a $4 bid. You can't make this up.
The bidding gets serious in the final 18 seconds.

Note:  Bottoms up! Attempted Bloggery is going to continue looking at the work of cartoonist E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971). Readers can help in this worthy cause by providing high-resolution scans or photographs of other original Campbell art or perhaps of obscure published works.

That keyword of mine that says published? refers to any post where the publication history is unknown or incomplete. If you can provide the publication name, date, and page number, I can get rid of that pesky keyword for you.

External Links:

E. Simms Campbell's Wikipedia Entry

E. Simms Campbell on Ink Spill

E. Simms Campbell in Christopher Wheeler's Cartoon(ist) Gallery 

E. Simms Campbell in Print: Insider Histories: Black Cartoonist E. Simms Campbell. Robert C. Harvey intervied by Michael Dooley. March 3, 2015

E. Simms Campbell on We Too Were Children, Mr. Barrie. October 6, 2012

E. Simms Campbell at American Art Archives

E. Simms Campbell on Eli Stein Cartoons.com:  "We All Have to Start Somewhere" Department. Case in Point No. 15. September 6, 2011

E. Simms Campbell in Potrzebie. October 10, 2007

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