Fun with James Stevenson

A cartoon for the New Yorker's January 5, 1987 issue exemplifies the best qualities that the late James Stevenson (1929-2017) brought to the art form. Here there are exquisite subtleties in tone and substance conveyed through solid draughtsmanship and caption-writing. Somehow his quick, sketchy ink-and-wash rendering conveys the architectural grandeur of the throne room, the formal intimacy of the royal couple, and the self-absorption of the king. The caption, neatly divided in two parts, goes suddenly from the formal to the informal, from the serious to the frivolous. The two halves are separated by an ellipsis in the original art and by an em dash in the published version. Somehow the overall effect appears effortless.

The original art was in the collection of publisher James H. Heineman (1917-1994) who evidently kept collecting into his seventies. In 2010 it was offered for sale at $1300 by James Cummins Bookseller. The artwork measures 13 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches. According to Mr. Heineman's notations on the verso, the original was exhibited at the Art Institute in Houston in 1990, at  the International Cartoon Festival in Knokke-Heist, Belgium from June 6 to September 27, 1991; and finally at the American Cultural Center in Brussels from November to December 1991. The cartoon dates from the Reagan years and the mention of greed may have had ongoing resonance as the S&L crisis unfolded.

Thirty years after this drawing's publication, I am still not prepared to accept the word fun as an adjective in my own writing. Still, it's hard to fault Mr. Stevenson or the New Yorker's editors for publishing a caption that reflects the way people actually talk. Ultimately fun will succeed as an adjective if it hasn't already because it meets an expressive need and there isn't an easy substitute. I resolve to continue to tilt at grammatical windmills because that's what curmudgeons do.