New Yorker Cartoonist William Hamilton, 1940-2016

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William Hamilton, a popular cartoonist for the New Yorker since 1965, has died in an auto accident at the age of 76. His work has been featured on Ivy Style before via an ’80s-era panel with the caption “We decided to just stay preppy as if nothing had happened.”

From the New York Times:

Mr. Hamilton’s cartoons had a distinctive quality, Lewis H. Lapham, the editor of Lapham’s Quarterly and a longtime friend, said on Saturday.
“You were never in doubt about who the cartoonist was,” he said. “He had a particular beat, as it were — the preppy world, the world of Ralph Lauren, the Protestant WASP establishment that was on their way out, holding onto their diminishing privileges.”

You can read the full piece here, and buy his cartoons from the Conde Nast store. — CC

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13 Comments on "New Yorker Cartoonist William Hamilton, 1940-2016"

  1. At least a few of the featured characters remind me of Ogden Phipps–

    –who, by the way, died a couple of days ago.

  2. My favorite Hamilton cartoon shows two men wearing jacket and tie seated with two women wearing dresses, at dinner (?), with the caption, “Darn it, I think up-tight is a fun life style.”

  3. Completely off topic:

    Does anyone know where I can find an oxford cloth apron or something similar? I’m trying to keep it trad in the kitchen – or at least not hobo-chic.

  4. Lately it seems as though my marriage is tied to the dollar.

  5. Vern Trotter | April 11, 2016 at 5:55 pm |

    I would like to pick a favorite cartoon but they were all my favorites. In the sixties, I would put his New Yorker work on the refrigerator door and visitors never failed to comment. He does bring to mind Ogden Phipps.

  6. Henry Contestwinner | April 12, 2016 at 12:25 am |

    JDD, once he sees the necessary gap and forms the desire to fill it, you will be to buy bespoke “apronings” from FEC in the fabric and design of your choice; from $500. I’m sure that both The Trad (Oxford cloth with a flapped & buttoned pocket; in white, blue, or blue & white stripes) and The Prep (piqué fabric in pink or kelly green with a popped collar on the neck strap and a logo on the left breast) will be standard options. Look also for The Summer Party (patch madras).

    Just as you can buy pre-distressed jeans, FEC will offer pre-stained options, such as Mediterranean (tomato sauce & olive oil stains), All-American (ketchup, mustard, & grill burns), Kung Fu (sesame oil, Kung Pao chicken, & wok charring), Ooh La La! (béchamel & red wine), and International (a potpourri of stains made from food from around the world); from $750. Of course, there will be the FEC Signature Edition, worn by The Great One himself, and spattered with whatever he most recently cooked; from $1200.

  7. @Henry

    If you wrote a satirical fashion blog, I’d read every word. Perhaps I will commission FEC to create a bespoke apron of super 120s Italian wool.

  8. From the tribute: “They took place in a specific world: that of upper-middle class, socially ambitious, attractive men and women, at home, at cocktail parties, and in restaurants. They were ‘Hamilton people.’ ”

    It occurred to me not so long ago that most of the “rich” I know are, in fact, just (merely) “upper middle’s.” Not outlandishly, grotesquely rich. The families are a rebellious generation or two (oh, those lazy, self-indulgent grandchildren!) away from dynastic demise. Filled with worries and weighed down by the burden that is, to borrow from the piece, “social ambition.” The persistent self consciousness, a trait most haute Protestants share, is a driving force. Hamilton’s work illuminates the upper middle predicament.

  9. Charlottesville | April 13, 2016 at 10:50 am |

    S.E. Good observations regarding third generation trust funders, upper middle vs. rich, etc. It certainly is consistent with what I have seen. “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” as the saying goes. Being somewhat preconscious, I have managed it in two, which is just as well since my wife and I have not been blessed with issue.

  10. Charlottesville | April 13, 2016 at 5:02 pm |

    I meant “precocious” of course. A trick of spell checker, I assume.

  11. Henry Contestwinner | April 14, 2016 at 10:02 pm |

    JDD, thank you for the kind words, and the inspiration. Perhaps I’ll do that….

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