Helen Hokinson

Helen Hokinson (1893-1949) was born in Mendota, Illinois, and studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago.  After graduating, she worked as a freelance fashion illustrator for department stores in Chicago, including Marshall Field's.  In 1920, Hokinson moved to New York City to work as a fashion illustrator and study at the School of Fine and Applied Arts (now Parsons School of Design).  At the urging of an instructor there, she began submitting comic drawings to magazines, including the fledgling New Yorker, which first published one of her cartoons on July 4, 1925. Like many cartoonists of the era, Hokinson worked in cooperation with professional gag writers to caption her pieces; Hokinson is said to have struck up a professional partnership in 1931 with James Reid Parker for that purpose that extended the duration of her career.  

Hokinson’s early drawings featured young women in New York City at the height of the flapper era, but over time, her subject matter shifted to matronly, heavy-set women engaged in quant—and very humorous—observations. According to modern Cartoonist Liza Donnelly, over time Hokinson became concerned that her audience was laughing at her protagonists rather than with them and in 1949 she launched a speaking tour to explain her characters.  Tragically, she died in a plane crash on the first leg of the tour.  

Over her 20-plus year career, the New Yorker published 68 of Hokinson’s covers and more than 1,800 of her cartoons. Six books feature her collected work, including three published following her death. In addition to her cartoons, Hokinson also illustrated many books for others.