CHARLES ADDAMS (1912-1988)
Two-headed baby.
Original illustration with inscription to his friend Charlotte Adams on front free endpaper of Addams' book Drawn and Quartered (New York: Random House, 1942), first edition, lacking dust jacket). In addition to their near-identical surnames (his with a double "d"), Charlotte and the cartoonist shared the nickname "Charlie." He humorously inscribed it to her thus, with a drawing of a lightly self-caricatured couple gazing at their hideous offspring, a two-headed baby with grim faces and the caption "He looks a little like both of us, don't you think?" and signed "Chas Addams" below. Adams was a highly esteemed cookbook editor, writer, and critic. She authored the bestselling The Four Seasons Cookbook with James Beard for home cooks and fans of Manhattan's famous "it" restaurant. A bon vivant and gastronome, she befriended Addams among many within the New Yorker and New York Times social circles.