Gluyas Williams (July 23, 1888 – February 13, 1982) was an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary an ...

, notable for his contributions to ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

'' and other major magazines. He was also syndicated in a number of newspapers, including the ''Boston Globe''. Born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, son of Robert and Virginia Williams, his name (pronounced GLUE-yass) reflected his Cornish ancestry. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard in 1911. In college, he was a member of the ''

Harvard Lampoon ''The Harvard Lampoon'' is an undergraduate Humor magazine, humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Overview The ''Harvard Lampoon'' publication was founded in 1876 by seven ...

''.''The Harvard Lampoon Centennial Celebration 1876-1973'' edited by Martin Kaplan, Little, Brown and Company, 1973. His cartoons employed a clean black-and-white style and often dealt with prevailing themes of the day such as

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

. His strip, as of 1924, was titled “The World At Its Worst.” His work appeared in ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'', ''

Collier's ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'', ''

Century A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial ...

'' and ''The New Yorker''. He was also syndicated to such newspapers as ''

The Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

''. According to his obituary in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' (15 February 1982, p. D7), by the time he retired in 1953, about five million regular readers had seen his cartoons, which ran in more than 70 newspapers. During the 1940s, he worked in Boston at 194 Boylston Street. When he died at the age of 93, he was living in Newton, Massachusetts. Snapshots of a Man Reading a Continued Story (Gluyas Williams)

Snapshots of a Man Reading a Continued Story (Gluyas Williams)

Reprints

Published collections of his work include ''The Gluyas Williams Book'' (1929), ''Fellow Citizens'' (1940) and ''The Gluyas Williams Gallery'' (1957). He also illustrated books by

Robert Benchley Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From his beginnings at '' The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, thr ...

and '' Father of the Bride'' by

Edward Streeter Edward Streeter (August 1, 1891 – March 31, 1976), sometimes credited as E. Streeter, was an American novelist and journalist, best known for the 1949 novel ''Father of the Bride'' and his ''Dere Mable'' series. Biography Streeter was ...

Family

Williams' sister was

Kate Carew Mary Williams (June 27, 1869 – February 11, 1961), who wrote pseudonymously as Kate Carew, was an American caricaturist self-styled as "The Only Woman Caricaturist". She worked at the ''New York World'', providing illustrated celebrity int ...

.''Society Is Nix: Gleeful Anarchy at the Dawn of the American Comic Strip 1895-1915''
book review by Paul Tumey, in ''

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing r ...

''; published August 30, 2013; retrieved November 30, 2019

References

External links

Gluyas Williams Site
maintained by David King
"The World of Gluyas Williams" by Edward Sorel
in ''American Heritage'' magazine
An appreciation of his art
at ''The Comics Journal'' * * 1888 births 1982 deaths American cartoonists The Harvard Lampoon alumni The New Yorker cartoonists Artists from San Francisco {{US-cartoonist-stub