{{Short description|American cartoonist (1920–1988)}}
{{Infobox person | name = Charles Saxon | birth_name = Charles David Isaacson | birth_date = {{birth date|1920|11|13}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1988|12|6|1920|11|13}} | death_place = Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. | alma_mater = Columbia University (B.A.) | occupation = Cartoonist | known_for = Cartoons for ''The New Yorker'' and various advertisements | spouse = Nancy Lee Saxon, ''née'' Rogers | children = 3 | awards = Reuben Award (1980) }}
'''Charles David Saxon''' (November 13, 1920 – December 6, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his work for ''The New Yorker''.
==Early life== Saxon was born Charles David Isaacson in Brooklyn;<ref>{{cite book |author=Cullen Murphy |title=Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe |location=New York |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-374-29855-5 |page=186}}</ref><ref name=Heritage>{{cite journal |author=Edward Sorel |author-link=Edward Sorel |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/content/%E2%80%9Cit-was-nice%E2%80%9D |title=It Was Nice |newspaper=American Heritage |date=November 1997 |volume=48 |issue=7 }}</ref> both his parents were musicians, and his great-uncle had been court violinist to the British Queen Victoria.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news |author=Glenn Collins |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/07/obituaries/charles-saxon-68-a-cartoonist-for-92-covers-of-the-new-yorker.html |title=Charles Saxon, 68, a Cartoonist For 92 Covers of The New Yorker |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 7, 1988 |page=D24 }}</ref>
==Career and education== He played drums and worked in jazz bands while at Columbia University, which he entered at 15;<ref name=NYT/> he became editor of its humor magazine, ''Jester''.<ref name=Heritage/>
After earning his B.A. he worked at Dell Publishing as editor of the satire magazine ''Ballyhoo'' before serving as a bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, flying 40 missions over Germany.<ref name=Heritage/><ref name=NYT/><ref>Murphy, p. 103.</ref> After the war he rejoined Dell, left to edit ''This Week'' for a year, and returned to edit ''Modern Screen''.<ref name=Heritage/> He also began drawing cartoons on weekends, selling them to ''The Saturday Evening Post''. His first appearance in ''The New Yorker'' was a spot illustration in 1943; after becoming a full-time cartoonist in 1955, he joined their staff in 1956 and over more than 30 years drew 92 covers and more than 700 cartoons for the magazine.<ref name=Heritage/><ref name=NYT/> Much of his ''New Yorker'' work gently pokes fun at the privileged denizens of prosperous suburbs; unusually, he wrote his own words, often highlighting clichés, as in an image of well-fed executives in a boardroom, the chairman stating "Of course, honesty is one of the better policies."<ref name=Heritage/><ref>Murphy, pp. 186–87.</ref> After ''The New Yorker'' was taken over and William Shawn left the editorship, his work was rarely published there.<ref name=Heritage/><ref>Murphy, pp. 188–89.</ref> He published three collections of his cartoons for the magazine: ''Oh, Happy, Happy, Happy!'' (1960), ''One Man's Fancy'' (1970), and ''Honesty Is One of the "Better" Policies: Saxon's World of Business'' (1984).
Saxon also drew numerous ads, including for Chivas Regal, American Airlines, Bankers Trust, IBM, and Xerox.<ref name=Heritage/> As his obituary in ''The New York Times'' noted, "So ubiquitous was his advertising work in the late 1970s that one edition of ''The Wall Street Journal'' featured ads by Mr. Saxon for three different companies."<ref name=NYT/>
Saxon had one-man shows at the Nicholls Gallery. He was awarded a gold medal by the Art Directors Club of New York in 1963 and an honorary doctorate by Hamilton College in 1972.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=Reuben>{{cite web |url=http://www.reuben.org/ncs/members/memorium/saxon.jpg |title=Charles Saxon |publisher=National Cartoonist Society |accessdate=June 25, 2018 }}</ref> He received the National Cartoonist Society Advertising Award for 1977,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.reuben.org:80/ncs/archive/divisions/advertising.asp |title=NCS Awards: Advertising Illustration |publisher=National Cartoonist Society |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060106020316/http://www.reuben.org/ncs/archive/divisions/advertising.asp |archivedate=2006-01-06 |access-date=2018-11-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and their Gag Cartoon Award for 1980, 1986, and 1987.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.reuben.org:80/ncs/archive/divisions/gag.asp |title=NCS Awards: Gag Cartoons |publisher=National Cartoonist Society |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060115132636/http://www.reuben.org/ncs/archive/divisions/gag.asp |archivedate=2006-01-15 |access-date=2018-11-30 |url-status=live }}</ref> For his work with ''The New Yorker'', he received their Reuben Award for 1980.<ref name=NYT/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.reuben.org:80/ncs/awards2.asp |title=NCS Awards: The Reuben |publisher=National Cartoonist Society |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060106013930/http://www.reuben.org/ncs/awards2.asp |archivedate=2006-01-06 |access-date=2018-11-30 |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Personal life== He was married to Nancy Lee Saxon, ''née'' Rogers, a sculptor and portraitist, and illustrated her children's books; they had three children.<ref name=Heritage/><ref name=NYT/><ref name=Reuben/>
==Death== Saxon died of heart failure on December 6, 1988, at St. Joseph Medical Center in Stamford, Connecticut.<ref name=NYT/> He spoke his last words to paramedics after suffering a heart attack at home: "I guess I'd better die; I just broke our best lamp."<ref name=NYT/><ref>Murphy, p. 189.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079735 Finding aid to the Charles Saxon papers at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University.] * [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1988/12/26/charles-saxon Obituary] by Lee Lorenz, ''The New Yorker'', December 26, 1988, p. 98 (subscription required)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saxon, Charles}} Category:1920 births Category:1988 deaths Category:American magazine cartoonists Category:American advertising artists and illustrators Category:American humorists Category:The New Yorker cartoonists Category:Reuben Award winners Category:Columbia University alumni Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II Category:Artists from Brooklyn