{{Short description|American illustrator and comic strip creator (1877–1972)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox comics creator
|image = Fanny Cory Cooney.jpg |image_size = |alt = |caption = |birth_name = | alias = F. Y. Cory, F. Cory Cooney, Fanny Cory Cooney, Fanny Y. Cory, FYC |birth_date = {{birth date|1877|10|18}} |birth_place = Waukegan, Illinois |death_date = {{death date and age|1972|07|28|1877|10|17}} |death_place = Stanwood, Washington |area = Cartoonist, illustrator | notable works = ''Sonnysayings'' (c. 1920–1956)<br />''Little Miss Muffet'' (1935–1956) |nationality = American |father = |mother = |spouse = Fred W. Cooney (m. 1904) |children = Sayre, Robert, Ted }} '''Fanny Young Cory''' (October 17, 1877 – July 28, 1972) was a cartoonist and book illustrator best known for her comic strips ''Sonnysayings'' and ''Little Miss Muffet''. Cory was one of America's first female syndicated cartoonists.<ref>[https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/cory_fanny_y.htm "Fanny Y. Cory,"] ''Lambiek's Comiclopedia''. Accessed December 3, 2017.</ref>
She went by several pen names: '''F. Y. Cory''', '''F. Cory Cooney''' and '''Fanny Cory Cooney''' but eventually used '''Fanny Y. Cory''' as her professional name. She sometimes used '''FYC''' as a signature on her early work.
== Early life and education == Fanny Young Cory was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on October 17, 1877, the daughter of Benjamin Sayre Cory and Jessy Salter McDougall.<ref name="Binheim">{{cite book|last1=Binheim|first1=Max|last2=Elvin|first2=Charles A|title=Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America | date=1928 | page=233 | url=https://archive.org/details/womenofwestserie00binh|accessdate=August 8, 2017}}{{PD-notice}}</ref> As a child, she drew or sketched on anything she could find.<ref name="MMWH">{{cite journal |last1=Cooney |first1=Bob |last2=Dodgson |first2=Sayre Cooney |title=Montana Mother and Artist Fanny Cory Cooney |journal=Montana The Magazine of Western History |date=Summer 1980}}</ref> When Cory was ten years old, her mother died of tuberculosis. Two years later, Cory's father moved the family to Helena, Montana.<ref name="WHM">{{cite web |last1=Lambert |first1=Kirby |title=Drawing on Motherhood: The Cartoons and Illustrations of Fanny Cory Cooney |url=http://montanawomenshistory.org/drawing-on-motherhood-the-cartoons-and-illustrations-of-fanny-cory-cooney/ |website=Women's History Matters |date=November 27, 2014 |publisher=Montana Historical Society |accessdate=January 20, 2020}}</ref>
Cory was 14 when she began to study under artist Mary C. Wheeler, the art supervisor of the Helena school system. In 1894, her older brother Jack and his wife Bertha invited her to stay in New York with them. Two years later, Cory enrolled at the Metropolitan School of Fine Arts. The following year, she was accepted by the Art Students League. Although Cory was a top student, the family had little money to spare for her education. In addition, Cory wanted to help care for her sister Agnes, who had tuberculosis. So, Cory left school.<ref name="MMWH" />
==Illustration career== [[File:St. Nicholas (serial) (1915) (14598397459).jpg|thumb|Cory illustrated this poem for ''St. Nicholas'' in 1915.]] Wanting to support herself and her ailing sister Agnes, Cory began selling her drawings. She made her first sale in 1898 to ''The Century Magazine.''<ref name="MMWH" /> As her career blossomed, Cory did covers and interior illustrations for magazines including ''Century'', ''Harper's Bazaar'', ''Life'', ''Scribner's'', ''The Saturday Evening Post'' and ''St. Nicholas''.<ref name="Binheim" />
Cory illustrated numerous books including a 1902 edition of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking Glass'' by Lewis Carroll. She illustrated L. Frank Baum's books ''The Master Key'' and ''The Enchanted Island of Yew''.<ref>''L. Frank Baum:'' Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Volume 46. Gale Group, 2002.</ref> She illustrated Marion Hill's ''The Pettison Twins'' (McClure, Phillips & Co, 1906). Cory illustrated William L. Hill's ''Jackieboy in Rainbowland'' (Rand McNally & Company, 1911).<ref>1911 copy of ''Jackieboy in Rainbowland''.</ref> Between 1913 and 1926, Cory decided to focus on raising her children, and she put her career on hold.
To relax, Cory began painting whimsical watercolors of fairies, flowers, birds, and other small animals. She made one for each letter of the alphabet, each one accompanied by a poem. She called them her "Fairy Alphabet." Cory considered these paintings her finest work, although she said she had no plans for them. The Montana Historical Society museum exhibited the paintings in the 1950s, but it was not until the 1980s that ''The Fairy Alphabet'' was published.<ref name="MMWH" /> The book was re-released by Riverbend Publishing in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Fairy Alphabet |url=https://riverbendpublishing.com/products/the-fairy-alphabet |website=Riverbend Publishing |accessdate=January 21, 2020 |archive-date=April 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406211830/https://riverbendpublishing.com/products/the-fairy-alphabet |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Comic strips == Cory's first attempt at cartooning, ''Ben Bolt, or, The Kid You Were Yourself,'' flopped. But in the 1920s, needing money to send her children to college, Cory decided to try again.<ref name=FYCorycom>[https://fycory.com "F.Y' Cory's History as an Artist and Illustrator,"] F.Y. Cory Publishers, Inc. Accessed December 3, 2017.</ref> She began producing a single-panel cartoon called ''Other People's Children.''<ref name="Robbins">{{cite book |last1=Robbins |first1=Trina |title=Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896–2010 |date=2013 |publisher=Fantagraphics Books |location=Seattle |isbn=9781606996690 |page=55}}</ref>
In 1926, Cory began her favorite comic, ''Sonnysayings,'' distributed by the Ledger Syndicate. It featured a precocious 5-year-old boy and his view of the world. ''Sonnysayings'' appeared in many newspapers throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and Scotland, under the name of '''Fanny Y. Cory'''.<ref name="Binheim" /> By 1935, ''Sonnnysayings'' had moved to King Features, where it ran until Cory's retirement in 1956. The cartoon was so popular that E. P. Dutton released a book collection in 1929.<ref name="MMWH" />
In 1935, Cory launched ''Little Miss Muffet'', syndicated by King Features until June 30, 1956.<ref name=baumbugle>{{cite web|url=http://www.fycory.com/baum/baum_bugle.htm|title=Fanny Y. Cory|author=Douglas C. Green|date=Spring 1973|accessdate=January 29, 2008|publisher=The Baum Bugle|archive-date=July 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160718232315/http://www.fycory.com/baum/baum_bugle.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>David Astor (1995). "'Doonesbury' man discusses his strip". ''Editor & Publisher''. September 30, 1995. v128 n39 p30(2). Article reports on a meeting with several speakers; "Fanny Cory, author of Little Miss Muffet" was mentioned in a talk by Trina Robbins, author of ''A Century of Women Cartoonists.''</ref><ref name=corycooney>{{cite web|title=125 Montana Newsmakers: Fanny Cory Cooney | url=http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers2/cooney.html | newspaper=Great Falls Tribune | author=Tribune Staff | accessdate=August 26, 2011}}</ref> Designed to compete with ''Little Orphan Annie,'' the cartoon featured the adventures of orphan Milly Muffet and her dog. (''Little Miss Muffet'' was written by Tecla Scheuring from 1940 to 1946.)<ref>Allan Holtz (May 2, 2011). [https://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2011/05/obscurity-of-day-little-miss-muffet.html "Obscurity of the Day: ''Little Miss Muffet''"]. ''Stripper's Guide'' (blog). Retrieved July 3, 2016.</ref> A ''Little Miss Muffet'' comic book was published in 1948 and 1949 by Best Books.
==Personal life== Cory returned to Montana in 1902 after the death of her sister Agnes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Glassmeyer |first1=Emily |title=Student Post: The Life of Cartoonist and Illustrator Fanny Y. Cory |url=https://library.osu.edu/blogs/cartoons/2019/01/10/student-post-the-life-of-cartoonist-and-illustrator-fanny-y-cory/ |website=Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog |accessdate=January 25, 2019 |date=January 10, 2019}}</ref> Her brothers, Jack and Bob, wanted to try their luck at gold mining, and they invited their sister to join them. The siblings had three cabins built northeast of Helena, not far from the mine. Cory called hers a "studio."<ref name="MMWH" />
In 1904, Cory married Fred Cooney and moved to his ranch on the Missouri River near the community of Canyon Ferry. She embraced ranch life, creating her illustrations with her drawing board in her lap as she sat by the window in the living room of the ranch house. She planted large gardens, canned the produce, and decorated her canning labels with illustrations. The couple had 3 children: Sayre, Robert, and Ted. In 1951, Cory was named Montana Mother of the Year. Cory retired in 1956. She moved to the Puget Sound area to be near her daughter, Sayre. She died in 1972 in Stanwood, Washington.<ref name="MMWH" />
Her brother J. Campbell Cory also became a cartoonist.<ref name="Dickinson1914">{{cite book|last=Dickinson|first=Harriet C.|title=Some Chronicles of the Cory Family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWZHAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA61|year=1914|publisher= Tobias A. Wright|location= New York|pages=61–62}}</ref> Fanny Cory was related to Kate Cory, particularly noted for her photographs and paintings of the Hopi. <ref>Claudette Simpson, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=886&dat=19740913&id=rLtaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WVADAAAAIBAJ&pg=2662,4020841 "A Little Background on Artist Kate Cory"]. ''The Prescott Courier.'' September 13, 1974. p. 16.</ref>
{{Portal |Children's literature |Comics |Visual arts}}
==References== {{reflist|25em}}
==External links== * {{commons category-inline|Fanny Cory}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=33622| name=Fanny Y. Cory}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Fanny Y Cory}} * [http://www.fycory.com/montmag/montmag.htm "Montana Mother and Artist"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165509/http://www.fycory.com/montmag/montmag.htm |date=March 3, 2016 }} from the Summer 1980 issue of ''Montana, The Magazine of Western History'' * [http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/tb1&CISOPTR=1831&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 UNCG American Publishers' Trade Bindings: Fanny Y. Cory] * {{LCAuth|n50018137|Fanny Y. Cory|21|}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cory, F. Y.}} Category:1972 deaths Category:1877 births Category:American children's book illustrators Category:American women children's book illustrators Category:American fantasy artists Category:People from Waukegan, Illinois Category:American women comics artists Category:American comic strip cartoonists Category:American women comic strip cartoonists Category:People from Stanwood, Washington