H. T. Webster
H. T. Webster | |
---|---|
The Timid Soul (Caspar Milquetoast ) | |
Spouse(s) |
Ethel Worts (m. 1916) |
Harold Tucker Webster (September 21, 1885 – September 22, 1952) was an American cartoonist known for
Because of the humor and human interest in his cartoons, he was sometimes compared to Mark Twain, and his art style was quite similar to the work of Clare Briggs. During his lifetime, Webster drew more than 16,000 single-panel cartoons.
Biography
Born in Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1885, Webster grew up in the small city (pop. 3,365) of Tomahawk, Wisconsin where his father was a druggist.[1] He began drawing at age seven. When he was 12, he switched from cigarettes to cigars, and that same year he sold his first cartoon for $5 to the magazine Recreation.
He studied drawing from a correspondence course when he was 15, and two years later, he left high school and Tomahawk to study in Chicago at the Frank Holmes School of Illustration, where cartoonist
He returned to Chicago, where he spent three years drawing front-page political cartoons for the
In 1952, Webster suffered a heart attack while on a train that was just arriving in Stamford, Connecticut; he died shortly thereafter.[3]
Caspar Milquetoast
The titles of Webster's cartoons reflected the different situations, as in Our Boyhood Ambitions and Bridge. In 1924, he moved to the New York World and soon after added The Timid Soul featuring Caspar Milquetoast, a wimpy character whose name is derived from milk toast. Webster described Caspar Milquetoast as "the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick". The modern dictionary definition of milquetoast (meaning a very shy or retiring person) comes from Webster's cartoons.
In 1927 Webster trained himself to draw left-handed in three months after a severe case of arthritis impaired the use of his right hand.
During the 1940s, Webster lived at Shippan Point in Stamford, Connecticut. His assistant, Herb Roth, took over when Webster died in 1952. When Roth died the following year, the series came to an end with the last new drawing appearing in the New York Herald Tribune on April 4, 1953.
Cartoon automation reference
A cartoon published in a 1923 issue of New York World appears to depict a hypothetical machine which some suggest to be a prediction of AI-powered art generators by the year 2023.[5]
Television
On June 22, 1949, the DuMont Television Network adapted The Timid Soul to television as the premiere presentation of their Program Playhouse series. Caspar Milquetoast was portrayed by Ernest Truex.
Bibliography
- Our Boyhood Thrills and Other Cartoons (1915)
- Boys and Folks (1917)
- Webster's Bridge with William Johnston (1924)
- Webster's Poker Book (1926)
- The Timid Soul (1931)
- The Culberston-Webster Contract System with Ely Culbertson (1932)
- Webster Unabridged (1945)
- To Hell with Fishing (1945)
- Who Dealt This Mess (1948)
- How to Torture Your Husband (1948)
- How to Torture Your Wife (1948)
- Life with Rover (1949)
- The Best of H. T. Webster, a Memorial Collection , foreword by Robert E. Sherwood (Simon & Schuster, 1953)
References
- ^ a b c "Average Man," Time, Monday, November 26, 1945.
- ^ "Webster's Unalloyed", American Heritage. Archived 2008-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Harold T. Webster, Cartoonist Creator of 'Milquetoast,' Dies, by the Associated Press, in The Evening Star; via Chronicling America; published September 23, 1952
- Simon and Schuster
- ^ "1923 cartoon eerily predicted 2023’s AI art generators" Arstechnica, January 19, 2023.