How wonderful to open yesterday’s New York Times and see the above. The piece, written by Janaki Challa, had been online for days on the Times website, but there’s something more, um, “real” about seeing an article in the actual publication.
I have seen at least one online mention that Ms. Shermund’s passing in 1978 was “ignored” by the Times, but it’s worth repeating that she was not ignored. As I said in my “obit” for her thirteen years ago on this site:
Barbara Shermund, who died in early September, 1978, had the misfortune of passing away during a newspaper strike that affected the paper of record, The New York Times.
Back in 2009, I was in a small library in Kingston, New York, looking for one particular roll of microfilm. Back then, researching what was in The New York Times archives (and other newspaper and magazine archives) meant going to a library that held microfilm (The Times had yet to allow its subscribers full online access to its entire run). At the Kingston library, I was looking for the roll of microfilm containing the paper’s issues published in September of 1978.
I was that date-specific because not too long before my library visit I’d found this short obit (shown here) dated September 9, 1978. It turned out to be the only obit for Barbara Shermund I ever found.
As I went through the Kingston library microfilm file drawers, I came to that time period — September 1978 — and found a handwritten note. It read something like:
No New York Times microfilm in this period because of a newspaper strike
Looking up the strike today (in 2022, at home, without the help of microfilm), I found this in The New York Times archive, dated November 6, 1978 :
“The New York Times and The Daily News resumed publication today after the resolution of a pressmen’s strike and other labor disputes that had shut down operations at the two newspapers for 88 days…”
So, yes, it was Ms. Shermund’s misfortune that her passing away happened during the strike, but how fortunate we are, all these years later, that we’re celebrating her incredible body of work for The New Yorker.
Barbara Shermund’s entry on the Spill’s A-Z:
Barbara Shermund (self portrait, above) Born, San Francisco. 1899. Studied at The California School of Fine Arts. Died, 1978, New Jersey. New Yorker work: June 13, 1925 thru September 16, 1944. 8 covers and 599 cartoons. Shermund’s post-New Yorker work was featured in Esquire.
More Shermund:
Read Liza Donnelly’s February 17, 2019 newyorker.com piece: “The Lovely Nineteen-Twenties Flapper Cartoons Of Barbara Shermund”
For great reading about Ms. Shermund’s life and work, here are two highly recommended books.
Liza Donnelly’s Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists (Prometheus. Originally published in 2005, with a new expanded edition published March 2022).
Judith Yaross Lee’s Defining New Yorker Humor (University Press of Mississippi, 2000).
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Full disclosure: Liza Donnelly and I are married. I would’ve highly recommended her book even if we weren’t.
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Gil Roth Interviews David Sipress
David Sipress, whose memoir, What’s So Funny? is out today, joins Gil Roth on his latest Virtual Memories Show podcast. Listen here
David Sipress began contributing to The New Yorker in 1998. Visit his website here.
Check out Gil Roth’s other cartoonist interviews here.
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From The Bangor Daily News, March 8, 2022, “Bill Woodman, Bangor Native, And Acclaimed New Yorker Cartoonist, Dies At 85″
Mr. Woodman’s entry on the Spill’s A-Z:
Bill Woodman Born October 30, 1939, Bangor, Maine. Died, February 12, 2022, Maine. New Yorker work: November 10, 1975 – January 6, 2003. Collection: Fish and Moose News (Dodd, Mead, 1980). Website.
Ink Spill‘s Bill Woodman Appreciation.