Harrison Cady

Large collection of original art for Thornton Burgess's long-running "Bedtime Story" column, featuring some of his most beloved characters as drawn by longtime collaborator Harrison Cady.

• Sold as a set of 44 pieces.
• Harrison Cady (American).
• n.p. n.p, [1955].
• Loose pen and ink drawings with captions, all signed by Cady.
• Many with date information to lower corner in a different hand.

"[A] matchless tour de force of good storytelling." – Michael W. Dowhan, Jr.

Burgess's "Bedtime Story" syndicated column ran six days a week from 1912 to 1960, for a whopping total of 15,000 "episodes" – and this was while he was actively engaged in writing books, other stories, and radio plays. He first teamed up with illustrator Harrison Cady in 1911, and Cady began providing a line drawing for each "Bedtime Stories" episode in 1913. The contrast between Cady's illustrations for Burgess's books and the "Bedtime Story" column is evident: Cady had to rely on sharp contrasts when drawing for the newspaper, as the final print would be of a much smaller size and lower quality than the books.

These 44 original pen-and-ink drawings span a period of about six months in the year 1955, with examples from every month from January to August (except for July). They represent a compound snapshot of the massive output of the Burgess-Cady team, and of Cady's artistic decision-making. Pencil sketch lines are evident below many of the final ink strokes, and his use of crosshatching instead of softer shading to communicate textures and shadow. A cohesive assemblage illustrative of the later days of the column that made Burgess a household name.