Celebrity Caricature in America - Hardcover

Reaves, Wendy Wick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300074638 ISBN 13: 9780300074635

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1998

Synopsis

This delightful book presents hundreds of entertaining caricatures of celebrities from popular American periodicals in the first half of the twentieth century. Employing a vivid new type of portraiture based on modern design and a preoccupation with personality- based fame, master caricaturists filled the pages of newspapers and magazines with renderings of Mae West, George Gershwin, the Marx Brothers, Babe Ruth, Mussolini, and other personalities of their times.

About this title

Review:

Early on in this survey of twentieth-century caricature there is an amusingly economical line drawing of a genial, jowly cardinal. It looks thoroughly modern. It was done before 1633. Kindly caricature was not invented in the United States, but it flourished here from, roughly, 1900 to the Second World War, with innovative artists employing avant-garde styles to portray not the character of the subject but the public perception of a well-known personage. There was much skill and wit involved in the game, and rarely even a hint of malice. Ms. Reaves's presentation of these clever drawings can raise a chuckle even when one has no recollection of the celebrated subject. -- The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0300074638
• ISBN 13: 9780300074635
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320