Witty New Yorker Cartoonisrf dies in Crash

Witty New Yorker Cartoonist Dies in Crash

"Although I haven’t exactly been published or produced, I have had some things professionally typed'"

Mr. Hamilton said, and he drew with equal wit 

but sadly we've now come to the end of his obit,

because, due to a  fatigued or distracted mind

he somehow  ran a stop sign

and  then  BANG was struck

by a pick-up truck...

 

and thus finally  ran out of luck

only four miles from   home in rural Kentuck.

Thus, reminding us that any automobile can  be an instrument of terror

When our reflexes slow and we have left too  little margin for error.

HzL

4/10/16

Mr. Hamilton’s cartoons had a distinctive quality, Lewis H. Lapham, the editor of Lapham’s Quarterly and a longtime friend, said on Saturday.

“You were never in doubt about who the cartoonist was,” he said. “He had a particular beat, as it were — the preppy world, the world of Ralph Lauren, the Protestant WASP establishment that was on their way out, holding onto their diminishing privileges.”

Photo

A 1979 cartoon by Mr. Hamilton.CreditWilliam Hamilton

Mr. Hamilton’s cartoons depicted characters dressed in suits and gowns in fine-dining settings or high-society parties, or corporate executives, frequently with a cigar in hand.

In one cartoon set in an office, a man in a dark suit is talking to another man in a suit. The caption reads: “Dobbs, we’ve been through the executive roster ten times and decided you’re the man for the job. How would you like to take a price-fixing rap?”

In another, two women are at table talking over glasses of wine. The caption reads, “He’s perfectly nice, but sort of boring, like good cholesterol or something.”

Although Mr. Hamilton took a pin to overinflated egos, his work did not spring from a place of anger, Mr. Lapham said. “He had a gracious mind, I thought, and a very lovely wit,” he said.