230) William Hamilton…

Original William Hamilton Illustration June 1986

William Hamilton (1939-2016) was a novelist, cartoonist and playwright best known for his cartoons in The New Yorker magazine. His humor was often derived from skewering the members of upper society; their snootiness and sense of privilege. Hamilton likely cultivated this view from having come from the poor branch of a notable moneyed family. His family name, however, enabled him to attend the prestigious Phillips Academy where he rubbed elbows with the children of the wealthy. After graduating, Hamilton went on to Yale University where he drew cartoons for The Yale Record, the campus humor magazine.

He began drawing for The New Yorker in 1965 and continued to contribute to the magazine until his untimely death in a car accident in 2016.

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