Peggy Bacon’s First New Yorker Cartoon…And Last
An unusual “First and Last” installment in that the last cartoon by this artist was her second New Yorker cartoon. In Peggy Bacon’s twenty-three years (1927-1950) with the magazine, her total number of contributions totaled forty-seven. Apart from her two cartoons, the majority of her remaining forty-five contributions were poems (thirty-eight). There were also four pieces of fiction, a “Casual,” and one Talk Of The Town piece.
Here’s her first New Yorker cartoon, from the issue of February 27, 1926:
And here’s her last, from the issue of October 29, 1927 (weedsy, I know, but I’m not familiar with ever seeing a double set of dots on a New Yorker cartoon. The norm, when there are two dots, is for them to appear below a drawing):
Ms. Bacon, according to her New York Times obit (January 7, 1987) was “a poet, author, artist, and illustrator of more than 60 books.” Also according to the times, in 1980 “she received the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for graphic art in recognition of ‘her long and impressive career as graphic artist and illustrator.”
Liza Donnelly, in her Very Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Women Cartoonists, wrote this of Ms. Bacon:
“Her wit was strong and brutal at times, her take on celebrities and politicians unforgiving. Perhaps her voice was too strong for the delicate (although not always) humor of the single-panel cartoon. Her verbal wit shone in her essays and poetry.”
Peggy Bacon’s Spill A-Z entry:
Peggy Bacon (Self portrait above from Faces & Facts, 1937) Born May 2, 1895, Ridgefield, Ct.. Died January 4, 1987, Kennebunk, Maine. New Yorker work: 1927 -1950, included poetry, and fiction as well as cartoons. Key collection: Off With Their Heads! (Robert M. McBride & Co. 1934).