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Al Capp
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”Dr. Gray plans a six week trip through South America, where he will see many of the
fascinating figures of that part of the world. He is an excellent writer, and spoke to me
about the possibility of doing articles on his tour for the Atlantic . . . .”
Al Capp, born Alfred Gerald Caplin, 1909–1979. American cartoonist and humorist. Typed Letter Signed, Al, one page, 8½" x 11", on imprinted “L'il Abner" personal stationery, no place, July 23, 1959.
Capp asks Charles W. Morton, an associate editor of The Atlantic Monthly, to see his friend Dr. Seymour Gray, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who wants to write for the magazine. In full: "We have just come back from London where we had a most entertaining couple of weeks. We will save the details until we see you. / Until then, would you be good enough to see a friend of mine. He is Dr. Seymour Gray, Chief of Internal Medicine at the Peter Bent Brigham, to whom all the greats of Hollywood, New York and Latin America have come for counsel and repairs. / Dr. Gray plans a six week trip through South America, where he will see many of the fascinating figures of that part of the world. He is an excellent writer, and spoke to me about the possibility of doing articles on his tour for the Atlantic, and I have taken the liberty of asking Dr. Gray to call you."
Capp is one of only 31 inductees into the National Cartoon Museum Hall of Fame. In 1934, he created his most famous cartoon strip, L'il Abner, which satirically juxtaposed homespun hillbillies with city slickers, business tycoons, government officials, and intellectuals. At its peak, L'il Abner appeared in more than 900 newspapers and had a daily readership of 80 million people, nearly half of the United States population. When at last Abner married his girlfriend Daisy Mae in 1952, the event made the cover of Life magazine. The United States Postal Service honored L'il Abner as one of 20 classic American comic strips on a commemorative postage stamp in 1995.
Seymour Gray, M.D., specialized in blood chemistry and gastrointestinal diseases and pioneered research in medical biophysics. He wrote more than 155 scientific papers and contributed chapters to eight medical textbooks. For seven years he treated members of the Saudi royal family and wrote of that experience in his memoir Beyond the Veil: The Adventures of An American Doctor In Saudi Arabia (1983).
Capp has signed this letter, on stationery emblazoned with a drawing of L'il Abner on the left margin, in blue ballpoint. The letter has five horizontal folds, one of which barely touches Capp's signature. Just above the signature is a ghost signature, “Al,” the pen impression from Capp's signature on another letter that he signed on top of this one. This letter, with thus essentially two autographs in one, is in fine condition.
Unframed.
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