TABLE OF CONTENTS

Descriptive Summary of the Collection

Administrative Information

Biography of Morrie Brickman

Scope and Content of the Collection

Arrangement

Selected Search Terms

Container List

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Inventory of the Morrie Brickman Cartoons, 1966-1985 The Newberry Library Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections 60 West Walton Street Chicago, Illinois 60610-7324 USA Phone: 312-255-3506 Fax: 312-255-3646 E-Mail: specialcolls@newberry.org URL: http://www.newberry.org Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Shannon Yule, 2007. ©2007.

Administrative Information

Cite As

Morrie Brickman Cartoons, Midwest Manuscript Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Provenance

Gift of Harriet Brickman, 2003.

Processed by

Shannon Yule, 2007.

Acknowledgements

This inventory was created with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this inventory do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Access

The Morrie Brickman Cartoons are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Morrie Brickman Cartoons are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

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Biography of Morrie Brickman

Comic artist and creator of the syndicated comic strip The Small Society.

Morrie Brickman was born July 17, 1917 in Chicago, and grew up in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. After high school, Brickman pursued his interest in art, taking courses at the Chicago Art Institute and the American Academy of Art when he could afford to do so. He worked selling shoes, cleaning up for John Groth (illustrator and editor for Esquire), designing shoe ads for Kling Studio, and helping out in his father’s shoe repair shop.

Brickman entered the U.S. Army in 1941 and was stationed in North Africa and Italy as a member of a topographic company. Upon his discharge, he returned to Chicago and married Shirley Kronenthal in 1945. They had a daughter, Harriet, and a son.

Brickman created several features before The Small Society, including Pic-Trix, Maximillian, The Senator, Crosscut, and Blue Chips. Brickman also served as the vice-president for National Newspaper Syndicate and continued to do freelance commercial work.

Brickman introduced The Small Society in 1966. It was syndicated by King Features and distributed to over three hundred newspapers around the world. It won first prize at the 9th International Salon of Cartoons and the Illinois House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Brickman for innovative journalism.

In 1984, Brickman sold the strip to King Features where it continued until 1998 under the hand of Bill Yates. Brickman then completed the script for Coming of Age, his play about retirement. He died in March of 1994.

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Scope and Content of the Collection

This collection consists of Morrie Brickman’s The Small Society comic strip, including: 60 original daily cartoon drawings, 40 original Sunday strip drawings, proofs of daily cartoons, 1966-1985, and Sunday cartoons 1967-1983. The first strip designed for the editorial pages, The Small Society represented the views and reactions of ordinary people to politicians and current political and cultural affairs. Brickman satirized current events and American life, covering topics such as the Vietnam War, Reaganomics, inflation, grocery prices, family, and taxes.

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Arrangement

Materials arranged chronologically.

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Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.

Names

• Brickman, Morrie, 1917-1994

Subjects

• Cartoonists -- United States
• Comic strips -- 1966-1985
• Editorial cartoonists -- United States
• Editorial cartoons -- 1966-1985
• Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
• United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century -- Caricatures and cartoons
• World politics -- Caricatures and cartoons -- History -- 20th century

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