Palmer Cox

Infobox Writer
name = Palmer Cox


caption =
birthdate = birth date|1840|4|28|mf=y
birthplace = Granby, Quebec, Canada
deathdate = death date and age|1924|7|24|1840|4|28
deathplace = Granby, Quebec, Canada
occupation = Illustrator, author, poet
genre =
notableworks = "The Brownies"
influences =
influenced =
website =

Palmer Cox (April 28, 1840 – July 24, 1924) was a Canadian illustrator and author, best known for his series of humorous verse books and comic strips about the mischievous but kindhearted fairy-like "The Brownies". The cartoons were published in several books, such as "The Brownies, Their Book" (1887). Due to the popularity of Cox's Brownies, one of the first popular handheld cameras was named after them, the Eastman Kodak Brownie camera.

Biography

He was born in Granby, Quebec, son of Michael and Sarah (Miller) Cox, and became a carpenter and car builder. He moved to San Francisco via Panama as a railroad contractor. He lived in San Francisco from 1863 to 1875. In 1874, he began to formally study drawing and contribute illustrated stories to such publications as "Golden Era" and "Alta California".Cite web|last=Lambiek Comiclopedia|title=Palmer Cox|url=http://lambiek.net/artists/c/cox-palmer.htm] After 1875, Cox lived in New York (Pine View House, East Quogue, Long Island). During this time he regularly contributed editorial cartoons to Oscar Hammerstein's United States Tobacco Journal.

The earliest publication of Brownie characters took place in 1879, but not until the February, 1881 issue of "Wide Awake" magazine were the creatures printed in their final form. In 1883, "Brownie" stories appeared in "St. Nicholas Magazine" and as their popularity rose, they were covered in publications such as the "Ladies' Home Journal".Cite web|last=Don Markstein's Toonopedia|title=The Brownies (1881)|url=http://www.toonopedia.com/brownies.htm]

Cox's Brownies are little men who have adventures together. Each Brownie has a distinctive physical appearance: for example, one, Cholly Boutonnière, wears a top hat and monocle, another is dressed as a stereotypical Chinese peasant, yet another is dressed as a Red Indian chief in war bonnet. Cox's text is quite crude, and does not develop individual personalities for the Brownies, aside from the "ethnic" ones speaking in stereotypical dialect. Cox's illustrations tend to show a crowd of Brownies jumbled together, with specific Brownies recurring from one illustration to the next, but with no Brownie occupying a predictable location in the picture.

Cox died in his home, Brownie Castle, on July 24, 1924. His tombstone, decorated with a Brownie figure, reads: "In creating the Brownies he bestowed a priceless heritage on childhood".Cite web|last= Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon |title=Palmer Cox biography |url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/brownies/cox_bio.html ]

Bibliography

* "Squibs of California" (1874) Later republished as "Comic Yarns" (1887)
* "Hans Von Petter's Trip to Gotham" (1878)
* "How Columbus Found America" (1878)
* "That Stanley" (1878)
* "Queer People, such as Goblins, Giants, Merry Men and Monarchs" (1888)
* "Queer People with Paws and Claws" (1888)
* "Queer People with Wings and Stings" (1888)
* "The Brownies, Their Book" (1887)
* "Another Brownie Book"
* "The Brownies at Home" (1893)
* "The Brownies Around the World" (1894)
* "The Brownies Through the Union" (1895)
* "The Brownies Abroad" (1899)
* "The Brownies in the Philippines"
* "The Brownie Clown in Brownie Town" (comicsCite web|last= Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon |title="The Brownie Clown in Brownie Town" |url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/brownies/brownietown.jpg Image] 1907)
* "The Brownie Primer"
* "The Brownie Calendar"
* "Palmer Cox's Brownies" (play)
* "The Brownies in Fairyland" (lyricsCite web|last= Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon |title=Brownies on stage-Lyrics|url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/brownies/fairyland01.html] )

Homages in other works

* Richard F. Outcault referenced Cox and "The Brownies" in a February 9, 1895 cartoon of "Hogan's Alley".
* In the children's novel "Rufus M", by Eleanor Estes set during World War I, young Rufus Moffat and his older sister Jane have a contest involving Palmer Cox's "Brownie" books: each new illustration, they compete to see who first spots the Brownie in the top hat.

ources

* [http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/brownies/bibliography.html Palmer Cox bibliography of published works] ;Footnotes

External links

* [http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/brownies/cox_bio.html Palmer Cox biography]
* [http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/brownies/index.html Palmer Cox' "The Brownies"]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/?c=juv&m=hrat&t=cox,%20palmer,,,&f=FC,+TX,+FC,+TI Books by Palmer Cox] in the University of Florida Digital Collections