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A Cartoonist's Life
Random House
November 2006
On Sale: October 24, 2006
400 pages
ISBN: 0679463259
EAN: 9780679463252
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
βTheyβre creepy and theyβre kooky,β is how the catchy theme song of The Addams Family described everyoneβs favorite nonconformistsβMorticia, Gomez, Lurch, Uncle Fester, Grandmama, Wednesday, and Pugsley. But for all the novelty of the sitcom based on Charles Addamsβs groundbreaking New Yorker cartoons, Hollywoodβs Addams family paled beside the cartoonistβs. βNot half as evil as my original characters,β sighed Addams. Though the haunted-household cartoons developed a following among New Yorker readers long before the 1960s sitcom, and the Addams and their seedy Victorian mansion soon became recognizable types, the artist with the well-known signature βChas Addamsβ remained an enigma. Called βthe Bela Lugosi of the cartoonists,β Addams was the cartoonist everyoneβeven Hitchcockβwanted to meet. He was bedeviled by rumors. People claimed that he slept in a coffin, collected severed fingers sent by fans, and suffered bouts of madness that sent him to the insane asylum. The true Addams was even more fabulous than the wildest stories and cartoons. Here was a sunny, funny urbane man, βa normal American boy,β as he called himself, with a dog who hated children and a taste for crossbows. While producing a unique body of work featuring lovingly drawn homicidal spouses, demonic children, genteel monsters, and an everyday world crosshatched with magic, Addams raced classic sports cars, juggled beautiful women (Joan Fontaine, Jackie Kennedy, and Greta Garbo, to name a few), and charmed everyone. But though his pursuits suggest lighthearted romantic comedy, Addamsβs life had its sinister side. Far darker than anything Addams created with a brush was his relationship with a dangerous woman who forever changed his life. In this first biography of the great cartoonist, written with exclusive access to Addamsβs intimates and his private papers, we finally meet the man behind the famed cartoons and circling rumors. Here is his surprising childhood in New Jersey, the cartoon that offended the Nazis, the friend whose early death Addams long mourned. Here are his wives, the stories behind his most famousβand some of his most privateβcartoons, and the Addams whom even his closest friends didnβt know.
 Media BuzzMorning Edition - October 31, 2006
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