Addams' Apple: The New York Cartoons of Charles Addams

Amusingly strange and curiously compelling, Charles Addams’ cartoons give a sly wink and a nod to scenes of everyday life in New York, Addams-style. His dark wit and deft hand lend themselves to subterranean themes of love and relationships, secrets and obsessions, subway stations and Lady Liberty. In Addams’ Apple: The New York Cartoons of Charles Addams, we witness an artist inspired by the quirks of his fellow New Yorkers and the singular nature of their city—itself one of Addams’ characters. In her foreword, Sarah M. Henry (Museum of the City of New York) highlights Addams’ offbeat insights into the institutions and mindsets that define the city’s culture. Lucy Sante’s preface explores Addams’ unique place in American culture. Addams’ Apple presents more than 150 cartoons created by Chas Addams (American, 1912–1988) throughout his prolific career; some have never been published before.

Charles Addams

One of America’s greatest humorists, Charles Addams (American, 1912–1988) made history with his irresistibly dark wit and uncommonly deft hand. As a cartoonist, he is best known for his eccentric Addams Family characters. Morticia, Lurch, and Thing originated in a 1938 issue of the New Yorker, and other quirky Family members followed. Ultimately, television and film interpretations rendered them offbeat icons of popular culture. Throughout his career, Addams was a marquee artist for the New York Times and the New Yorker, and the city itself, home for much of his life, was a character in his cartoons. Charles and his wife, Tee, eventually moved to The Swamp, their storied property in Sagaponack, New York, now home to the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation.