James Reid Parker

A collection of the cartoons of longtime New Yorker cartoonist Helen Hokinson, published after her death. The cartoons span a roughly 25-year period. She didn't really change a great deal during all that time, and after a while, you start to get a bit annoyed with the oblivious, self-centered matrons that populate most of her cartoons. Take this book in limited doses.

Helen E. Hokinson (1893-1949) was a cartoonist for The New Yorker from about 1925 to 1949. She died in a plane accident at age 55 cutting her career short at the height of popularity and leaving many despondent fans. Her cartoons, collected in this volume, are of her trademark "dowagers", or late middle aged women typical of the period, denizens of woman's clubs, beauty parlors, art galleries and summer resorts. They are "full figured", wear funny hats, and the sins of the flesh tend to the show more dietary. She called them her "Best Girls".

Hokinson is mostly forgotten today, she was the product of a generation that has mostly passed away, and with woman's liberation, her work is no longer politically correct. Yet there is something warm, timeless and appealing, sort of like the soup grandmother used to make. It certainly brings back fond memories of my grandmother, and helps explain some of my mothers own tendencies as she moves on in years. A great collection of a forgotten but beloved artist.

It should be noted that James Reid Parker was a "silent collaborator" with Hokinson, he dreamed up the situations and wrote the captions to Hokinson's drawings.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd show less