Addams was best known
for his macabre cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker,
for whom he also did the occasional cover. His Addams Family
cartoons were the basis for a hit TV series and two successful
feature films.
Addams was a mild mannered man with a wicked but gentle mind. The following is from the 1954
dj notes on Homebodies:
"Charles Addams was born in Westfield,
New Jersey, forty-one years ago and attended Colgate University,
The University of Pennsylvania, and Grand Central School of Art
in New York City.
His work, almost in its entirety, has been published in The
New Yorker for the last twenty-two years and has resulted
in three previous books: Drawn and Quartered, Addams
and Evil, and Monster Rally.
He works mostly in New York City in what looks like an unsuccessful
private eye's office. Practically nothing is accomplished in his
house at Westhampton Beach on Long Island. He has owned a series
of sports cars and collects medieval crossbows.
Addams daydreams almost constantly and, in his own view, is generally
quite lazy."
Above right is a rare Addams 1945 Cream of Wheat ad posted especially for the 2011 update of this, the FIRST web biography that I wrote (back in 1997).
In addition to those listed above, Addams' most famous books would have to include:
Black Maria ("muh rye uh" - the nickname for the police paddy wagon shown on the dj), Favorite Haunts, The Groaning Board, Nightcrawlers, Creature Comforts, The Charles Addams Mother Goose, the scarce Dear Dead Days, and Afternoon in the Attic, the dj of which provided the photograph above.
To learn more about Charles Addams, see:
| Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life | Linda H. Davis, 2006 Random House |
| The Vadeboncoeur Collection of Knowledge | Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. 1997 |
|
Illustrations copyright by the estate
of Charles Addams. This page written, designed © 1997 by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Updated 2011. |
