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William Hamilton, Popular Cartoonist at The New Yorker, Dies in Car Crash William Hamilton, Popular Cartoonist at The New Yorker, Dies in Car Crash
(about 17 hours later)
William Hamilton, a cartoonist known for his drawings in The New Yorker that skewered the wealthy and powerful, died in a car crash on Friday in Lexington, Ky. He was 76. William Hamilton, a cartoonist whose work for The New Yorker for more than 50 years was known for skewering the wealthy and the powerful, died on Friday in a car crash in Lexington, Ky. He was 76.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Lucy Young Hamilton. His wife, Lucy Young Hamilton, confirmed his death.
Ms. Hamilton said her husband liked to go for afternoon drives and was about four miles from their horse farm when he either passed out or was distracted and drove through a stop sign. His vehicle was struck on the driver’s side by a pickup truck, she said. She said he was about four miles from their horse farm when he either passed out or was distracted and drove through a stop sign. His vehicle was struck on the driver’s side by a pickup truck, she said.
Lt. Jackie Newman of the Lexington Police Department said the collision happened on a windy, rural road at around 2:45 p.m. His vehicle then struck a fire hydrant and he had to be pulled out of the wreckage. He was taken to the University of Kentucky Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, she said. Lt. Jackie Newman of the Lexington Police Department said the collision happened on a rural road around 2:45 p.m. Mr. Hamilton was pronounced dead at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.
Ms. Hamilton said she was introduced to her future husband at a mutual friend’s birthday party in January 2002 in Virginia. When they met, she said, she had no idea he was the brains behind a series of popular cartoons in The New Yorker. They married on Nov. 2, 2003. Mr. Hamilton, who also wrote novels and plays, began his career with The New Yorker in 1965 and was still working there at his death.
Mr. Hamilton began his career with the magazine in 1965 and was working for it up to the time of his death, Ms. Hamilton said. His cartoons — densely drawn in a somewhat realistic style — were distinctive, Lewis H. Lapham, the editor of Lapham’s Quarterly and a longtime friend, said on Saturday.
“He was always just drawing and writing and creating,” she said. “You were never in doubt about who the cartoonist was,” Mr. Lapham 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.”
Mr. Hamilton’s cartoons had a distinctive quality, Lewis H. Lapham, the editor of Lapham’s Quarterly and a longtime friend, said on Saturday. In one cartoon, two men in dark suits are talking to each other in an office. “Dobbs, we’ve been through the executive roster ten times,” the caption reads, “and decided you’re the man for the job. How would you like to take a price-fixing rap?”
“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.” In another, two women at a table talk over glasses of wine. The caption reads, “He’s perfectly nice, but sort of boring, like good cholesterol or something.”
Mr. Hamilton’s cartoons depicted characters dressed in suits and gowns in fine-dining settings or high-society parties, or corporate executives, frequently with a cigar in hand. Although Mr. Hamilton took a pin to overinflated egos, his work did not spring from anger, Mr. Lapham said. “He had a gracious mind, I thought, and a very lovely wit,” he said.
In one cartoon set in an office, a man in a dark suit is talking to another man in a suit. The caption reads: “Dobbs, we’ve been through the executive roster ten times and decided you’re the man for the job. How would you like to take a price-fixing rap?” Some of his work had been inspired by his own encounters with people and situations, his daughter and son-in-law, Alexandra and Billy Kimball, said in an email.
In another, two women are at table talking over glasses of wine. The caption reads, “He’s perfectly nice, but sort of boring, like good cholesterol or something.”
Although Mr. Hamilton took a pin to overinflated egos, his work did not spring from a place of anger, Mr. Lapham said. “He had a gracious mind, I thought, and a very lovely wit,” he said.
Mr. Hamilton’s daughter and son-in-law, Alexandra and Billy Kimball, said in an email that he drew inspiration for some of his work from his own encounters with people and situations.
They cited one cartoon — a husband and wife dressing in black tie to go out — with the caption, “If we don’t go do you think people will think we weren’t invited?”
“He took a rarefied world and broke it down into terms that would seem familiar to any socially insecure high school student anywhere,” they wrote.“He took a rarefied world and broke it down into terms that would seem familiar to any socially insecure high school student anywhere,” they wrote.
Mr. Hamilton began drawing when he was a child, and his first rejection came from The Saturday Evening Post when he was 12, The New York Sun reported in 2005. He had submitted a cartoon of burglars complaining about the rain as they broke into a house. Mr. Hamilton began drawing as a child, and his first rejection came from The Saturday Evening Post when he was 12, The New York Sun reported in 2005. He had submitted a cartoon of burglars complaining about the rain as they broke into a house.
In a 1988 interview with The New York Times, Mr. Hamilton said his fascination with those in high society came from “being near money, but far enough away that I couldn’t quite get my fingers around it.” Mr. Hamilton said his fascination with high society came from “being near money, but far enough away that I couldn’t quite get my fingers around it,” he told The New York Times in 1988.
Mr. Hamilton, who was raised on a ranch in California’s Napa Valley called Ethelwild, said, “We lived on one of those dwindling trust funds with a hint of money in the past, but not much in the present.” William Hamilton was born on June 2, 1939, in Palo Alto, Calif., the son of Alexander Hamilton and the former Ellen Ballentine. He grew up in St. Helena, Calif. in Napa County. “We lived on one of those dwindling trust funds,” he once said, “with a hint of money in the past, but not much in the present.”
A blog celebrating his work highlighted his witticisms — “Omigod. The entire axis of boring is in there.”— and noted that some of them had been adopted into everyday conversations. He went to Phillips Andover in Andover, Mass and graduated from Yale in 1962. He was in the Army from 1963 to 1965, serving in Alaska.
His daughter and son-in-law noted that his work had a certain New York quality to it. His first two marriages ended in divorce. He married Lucy Young Boutin in 2003. In addition to her and his daughter, his immediate survivors include a son, Gilliam; a sister, Diana Stockton; a brother, Alexander; and two grandchildren.
“In a city that seethes with aspiration and where people are preoccupied with subtle social rituals, his work suggested that the world of Manhattan sophistication that so many aspire to might be beset with the same sort of frustrations, insecurities and tedium as the life of anyone anywhere,” they wrote. Mr. Hamilton’s handful of plays and novels are largely concentrated on the same upper class that was grist for his cartoons and hold to their same satirical mix of acid and amusement.
Mr. Hamilton was also a playwright and author, though he viewed his work in those fields as a mixed success. One play, “Save Grand Central,” is the story of two mismatched Upper East Side couples and the attempt by one of the men, a ravenous lawyer, to replace the pretentious upscale restaurant owned by the other with a Burger King. When it appeared Off Broadway in 1980, The Times’s Mel Gussow wrote that Mr. Hamilton was even funnier writing for the stage than he was in cartoons.
He told People magazine in 1979: “I had written three novels, none of which I’d particularly like to see published, and a movie about astronauts. It is like a line in one of my cartoons: ‘Although I haven’t exactly been published or produced, I have had some things professionally typed.’ That’s the story of my novels and movie.” Mr. Hamilton’s novels include “The Love of Rich Women” (1980), about a poor young man who falls for a rich young woman and encounters complications with her family; “The Charlatan” (1985), about a man from a rugged background who marries well and is about to inherit his wife’s fortune when, instead of dying as anticipated, she asks for a divorce; and “The Lap of Luxury” (1988), “a witty moral tale set in the New York art world,” as Susan Cheever described it in The New York Times Book Review, about a poor painter who marries into fabulous wealth.
Mr. Hamilton considered his work as a playwright and novelist a mixed success.
He told People magazine in 1979: “ It is like a line in one of my cartoons: ‘Although I haven’t exactly been published or produced, I have had some things professionally typed.’ That’s the story of my novels and movie.”