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❆ Frost Bitten. ❆
Frost’s early treatment of the ice-sliding scene
from Dickens’ humorous masterpiece.
❆ By Rick Marschall ❆
Those who know me, and those who don’t, and the
vast portion of humanity in between who don’t care, might know that I am fanatical about Arthur Burdett
Frost (1851-1928). A. B. Frost ought to be remembered and celebrated and,
indeed, honored, more than he has been. When I admire a cartoonist (or
illustrator or author or composer or performer) I tend to be come a completest,
acquiring complete printed or recording works when possible, or as much
ancillary material as possible.
In the case
of this revered artist (close to Opper in my personal pantheon) (and one of
many figures responsible for my perpetual penury) I have collected published
works, original art, correspondence, rare portfolios, and sketches by Frost. I
have visited the house where he lived for much of his career, and traded items
with subsequent occupants.
Why is
Frost special… No, let me say, A B Frost should be near the top of the list of
cartoon scholars and fans for myriad reasons. He was a master at realization,
anatomy, composition, humor, and many disparate genres. The Dionne Quintuplets,
collectively, had fewer individual facets then did A B Frost. To list
significant facts about the modest genius:
He was one
of the first newspaper (New York Daily Graphic) and magazine cartoonists
(Harper’s, Century, Scribner’s) when technology allowed pen-and-ink
artists freedom. His only early rivals were Felix O C Darley, Thomas Nast, and
Thomas Worth;
He was a
pioneer political cartoonist (Graphic and Harper’s Weekly);
He was a
frequent illustrator of scores of books, and for major authors – Lewis Carroll,
Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Frank Stockton, Theodore Roosevelt;
His
illustration for the iconic Uncle Remus stories were so pitch-perfect
that when an anthology was published, Joel Chandler Harris wrote a printed
dedication to Frost, claiming that it was Frost’s drawings, more than the
texts, that accounted for the success of the books;
He mightily
contributed to the growing art form of the comic strip – his frequent
multi-panel series in Harper’s and Scribner’s were popular before
most other artists were experimenting with the form;
If he had restricted
himself to one genre, he would be a notable figure… but he was versatile enough
to be the dominant artist / cartoonist / illustrator in several fields:
Humor… Western adventure… Hunting and sporting scenes… Rural and nostalgia
subjects… Nature… Americana;
He was a
master of pen and ink, but also frequently painted in colors and gouache (he
was color-blind, so usually worked in grays unless his sons suggested colors to
use);
For a while
he laid aside cartoons and illustration, and moved to Giverny in France to live
– and learn and paint with – the great French Impressionists of the era;
At the end
of his life he returned to his first love, cartooning, and drew weekly panels
and strips for Life Magazine. Besides the many books and stories he
illustrated, he is at least known to collectors and fans for a couple of his
stunning strip collections – Stuff and Nonsense and The Bull Calf.
In the
future I will spill more about this great figure, and my crossed-paths along
which I have hunted for information and artifacts.
Here, just
a little curiosity – a “footprint” of how he worked. I have letters where he
turned down assignments, and a story of his rudely treating an emissary of
William Randolph Hearst who showed up at Frost’s farm with an open-ended
invitation to draw strips.
But we
share a letter to Frost from the Art Department of Scribner’s Magazine (rather
frantic!) asking Frost to put aside an assignment to illustrate The Last of
the Mohicans, and illustrate instead Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick
Papers… suggesting three chapters from which to choose.
A letter from the Art Department of Scribner’s Magazine suggesting illustrations for Dickens’
Pickwick Papers. Some urgency: “I pray do let us have it as soon as
possible...”
(To be precise,
the book’s actual title is The Posthumous
Papers of the Pickwick Club. Dickens' first novel concerns the doings of Mr Pickwick
and his circle including Nathaniel Winkle, Augustus Snodgrass, and Tracy
Tupman. The original illustrator for this novel was Robert Seymour. Undoubtedly the humorous
situation related in Chapter 30, one of Dickens’ funniest in any of his books, appealed to
Frost. That chapter’s title, by the way, is “How the Pickwickians Made and
Cultivated the Acquaintance Of a Couple Of Nice Young Men Belonging To One Of
the Liberal Professions; How They Disported Themselves On the Ice; and How
Their Visit Came to a Conclusion.”
The
chapter’s humor is thus forecast… besides the evidence that Dickens was paid by
the word…)
Mr
Pickwick was not the only posthumous character in this story; Dickens had
passed when Frost was asked to illustrate editions of his great works. And
Uncle Remus’s creator represented many authors and editors who clamored for
Frost’s work; but Lewis Carroll, who assigned Frost work on books subsequent to
the Alice tales, unbelievably was not happy with Frost’s work, and it was
an unhappy collaboration. The drawings he did do hold up, however, and
were printed; that situation said more about the eccentric Mr Carroll than
about the illustrious Mr Frost.
Later.
For now, an early frost.
❆❆❆
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