Oh boy, the great, and I mean great George Booth (1926-2022). Booth was a mainstay at the New Yorker, contributing hundreds of cartoons and covers to the magazine starting in 1969 and continuing for over 50 years. Booth focused on interaction in his work, usually one person interacting while the other character was the brunt of that interaction. There might be the old couple in the apartment, with the husband informing his wife of some far-flung fact. Or some older gentlemen at a club, with one commenting on something happening in society. This wonderful drawing is actually a preliminary piece for a New Yorker cartoon that appeared in the August 6, 1984 issue of the magazine. It features one of Booth’s typical guys in the bathtub, seen through the door. The foreground features one of Booth’s wonderfully cluttered rooms, with cats everywhere, including on the ironing boards. The man is saying, “Can I assume, then, that we are in agreement on the President’s Star Wars proposal?†In the printed version, “can†was changed to “mayâ€, but the gag is the same, referring to President Reagan’s plan. The drawing is pretty typical of Booth’s prelim work, acting as a short-hand for the finished piece. But the energy of his work is all right there. The drawing measures 12â€x 9†and was done on drawing paper. There is a paper clip remnant in the upper left, where the piece was apparently clipped together with other pieces. This cartoon rough came out of Lee Lorenz’s estate. $125.00 + 13.00 Priority Mail shipping. SOLD
