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Showing posts from July, 2008

Jews, Cartooning, and The New Yorker

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By Dan Schifrin, Director of Public Programs and Writer in Reside nce Not every boy dr eams of growing up to write cartoons for The New Yorker , or books for child ren. But I did. In high s chool I often brought on e-panel cartoons into my English class, hoping that my witty reference t o Kafka and S hakespeare would boost my popularity (sadly, I only got extra cr edit, which at 16 seemed quite the b ooby prize). Growing up with a younger sister, for whom I often improvised stories, songs and sometimes e ntire musicals, I felt it was theoretically possible to invent stories as strangely rich as those written by Hans Christian A ndersen, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Shel Silverstein. It was later in life when I realized that one man , William S teig, had managed to create both canonical cartoons and children’s books, as well as a museum full of drawings evoking the absurdity and pathos of life. William Steig, "I got my first haircut at Ditchick's Barbershop," fin