An Addams Album Cover
It never ceases to amaze what pops up online. Yesterday it was this 1957 Dean Gitter album with Charles Addams cover art.
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Harold Ross On Gluyas Williams
I opened a bound volume of The Atlantic Monthly the other day wanting to re-read Charles Morton’s three part article that charts his brief “try for The New Yorker” in 1933.
In the second part, published April ’63, Morton tells us of his late Sunday night job interview with Harold Ross in the magazine’s deserted offices (deserted except for Ross and Morton). Fascinating reading (E.B. White told Morton about this series, “I thought you, more than others, recaptured the amiable spirit and wonderous intent of the magazine and its hopeful editor.”)*.
Here’s one small segment of that second installment where one of Ross’s favorite cartoonists, Gluyas Williams, is mentioned:
(Ross told me later of his great admiration for Williams. He was rejecting, he said, the advertising of a large company, because its copy was illustrated by a flagrant imitator of Williams’ distinctive style. Ross said he had tried repeatedly to persuade Williams to join the staff but that Williams refused to work in New York or be on anyone’s staff. “He’s one of these goddamn Bostonians,” said Ross, with a kind of despairing approval.)**
*From Letters Of E.B. White / Revised Edition, p. 453. Letter from White to Morton, dated May 6, 1963.
**Charles W. Morton, The Atlantic monthly, April 1963, “A Try For The New Yorker”
The Gluyas Williams A-Z Spill entry:
Gluyas Williams (above left undated; right:1 975) Born, San Francisco, 1888. Died, Boston, Mass., 1982. One of the pillars of Harold Ross’s stable of artists, and one of Ross’s favorite cartoonists. His beautiful full page drawings were a regular feature in the magazine. Mr. Williams illustrated a number of Robert Benchley’s collections, providing the cover art as well as illustrations. NYer work: March 13, 1926 – Aug 25, 1951. Key collections: The Gluyas Williams Book (Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1929), The Gluyas Williams Gallery (Harper, 1956). Website: http://www.gluyaswilliams.com/