A Group: Lorenz, McKay, Stevenson, Bull, Fougasse, Duffy
Here’s Group #3 of a series of semi-randomly selected pieces from the Spill archives (okay, okay, I do put some thought into the group). From the top left, an assortment of pages of famous quotes, with hand written humorous comments by Lee Lorenz. He seemed to be starting on an idea for a book; I have to assume he was going to illustrate each quote. These were handed to me in Brewster, New York some years back when Lee and I met for lunch (he also gave me a trunkful of old issues of The New Yorker).
Just below the Lorenz notes, an original drawing by Dorothy McKay. Ms. McKay was published in The New Yorker just half a dozen times. According to Liza Donnelly in her Very Funny Ladies history of the magazine’s women cartoonists, McKay tired of the (then) heavy hand in editorial assistance, and finally wrote, in frustration, to the editors, “Let’s just skip it, for awhile.”
Next is an original drawing of a rhinoceros by James Stevenson in a copy of his 1963 collection, Sorry Lady –This Beach Is Private! Stevenson’s drawings always seemed effortless. This rhino is no exception.
To the right of the Stevenson book is an original New Yorker drawing by Johan Bull. Here’s how it looks published in the issue of March 19, 1927:
Mr. Bull, as you can see below in his A-Z entry began contributing to The New Yorker within its first five months. Besides cartoons, he did a lot of illustration work, much of it sports-related (such as the Dempsey drawing).
The small book shown is by Cyril Kenneth Bird. His pen name was Fougasse. This book, published in 1937, gives us a good dose of work he published in Punch.
To the far right: another historic New Yorker drawing: an original by Joe Duffy, published in the issue of October 31, 2011. I believe it to be the first meta New Yorker drawing. I’ve always loved it, and was amazed and very grateful that Joe was willing to trade with me. Here’s a better look at it.
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Artists A-Zs:
Lee Lorenz ( Pictured above. Photograph taken 1995 by Liza Donnelly) *Born 1932, Hackensack, NJ. Died, December 8., 2022, Connecticut. Lorenz was the art editor of The New Yorker from 1973 to 1993 and its cartoon editor until 1997. During his tenure, a new wave of New Yorker cartoonists began appearing in the magazine — cartoonists who no longer depended on idea men. Cartoon collections: Here It Comes (Bobbs-Merrrill Co., Inc. 1968) ; Now Look What You’ve Done! (Pantheon, 1977) ; The Golden Age of Trash ( Chronicle Books, 1987); The Essential series, all published by Workman: : Booth (pub: 1998), Barsotti ( pub: 1998), Ziegler (pub: 2001), The Art of The New Yorker 1925 -1995, (Knopf, 1995), The World of William Steig (Artisan, 1998). New Yorker work: 1958 –.
Dorothy McKay ( Self portrait above from Meet the Artist, 1943; Photo from Cartoon Humor, 1938) Born c.1904, died June, 1974 New York City. New Yorker work: 1934 -1936.
James Stevenson Born, NYC, 1929. Died, February 17, 2017, Cos Cob, Connecticut. New Yorker work: March 10, 1956 – June 16, 2003. Stevenson interned as an office boy at The New Yorker in the mid 1940s when he began supplying ideas for other New Yorker artists. Nine years later he was hired as a full-time ideaman, given an office at the magazine and instructed not to tell anyone what he did. He eventually began publishing his own cartoons and covers as well as a ground-breaking Talk of the Town pieces (ground breaking in that the pieces were illustrated). His contributions to the magazine number over 2000. Key collections: Sorry Lady — This Beach is Private! ( MacMillan, 1963), Let’s Boogie ( Dodd, Mead, 1978). Stevenson was a children’s book author, with roughly one hundred titles to his credit. He was a frequent contributor to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, under the heading Lost and Found New York. Stevenson’s The Life, Loves and Laughs of Frank Modell, published in 2013, is essential reading. Sally Williams’ 2019 documentary film, Stevenson Lost & Found is essential viewing.
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Johan Bull (photograph, dated 1934, courtesy of the Bull family) Born c. 1894, Oslo. Died Stowe, Vermont, Sept. 1945. New Yorker work (cartoons): July 4, 1925 – Oct. 22, 1927 *his New York Times obit says he contributed to The New Yorker until 1930, perhaps the last three years he contributed spot drawings(?)
Cyril Kenneth Bird 
Born, London, December 17, 1887. Died, 1965. New Yorker work: 1 cartoon, March 28, 1925. Known professionally under the name Fougasse, Bird became art editor of Punch in 1937, and assumed the title of editor in 1949. Key book: The Good-Tempered Pencil, A Survey of Modern British and American Humorous Art (Max Reinhardt, 1956).
J.C. Duffy (above) New Yorker work: November 9, 1998 – .Website:cartoonistgroup.com/