biography of Charles Samuel ADDAMS (1912-1988)

Birth place: Westfield, NJ

Addresses: NYC

Profession: Cartoonist, illustrator

Studied: Colgate Univ., 1929-1930; Univ. Pennsylvania, 1930-1931; Grand Central School Art, NYC, 1931-1932 (he dropped out of all three schools)

Exhibited: Fogg Art Mus.; RISD; Original Drawings, Mus. City New York, 1956; Pennsylvania Univ. Mus., 1957; MMA Art Print Exhib.; Fogg MA, Harvard; NYPL, 1994 (retrospective); Illustration House, NYC. Awards: Yale Humor Award, 1954; Mystery Writers of Am.

Member: SI

Comments: Cartoonist of the macabre, his most popular characters were the basis of "The Addams Family" television series and movie. The New Yorker magazine hired him as a regular cartoonist in 1935. He collected vintage automobiles, and died behind the wheel of one in 1988. His books include Night crawlers (1957), The Groaning Board (1964), My Crowd (1970); Black Maria (1960), The Charles Addams Mother Goose (1967), and others.

Sources: WW73; WW47; WW73; exh. adv., Illustration House, NYC.

Legals