The first time I saw a copy of a Cheerful Cherub book was in an enormous antique mall that seemed to have swallowed my wife, leaving me to seek some meager distraction in the tiny handful of books that could be found there. As hours dragged on and I found myself beginning to think, “Hmm … Taylor Caldwell. Maybe I should try one of hers,” I finally picked up what I had taken to be the world’s oldest and fattest “Love Is” book.
My mistake was understandable. There is a certain similarity between the cartoon style of Kim Casali (creator of “Love Is …”) and Rebecca McCann (creator of the Cheerful Cherub). Both feature nude but genital-free homonculi with infantile bodies but engaging in adult activities. Both refine cuteness to near-lethal intensity. Casali always shows a male and a female character (we can tell only by the hair and eyelashes). McCann always showed an infant neither male nor female and an adoring little puppy.
If you were me, you’d probably have stopped reading already.
But stay with me, people.
Because as I took more time to read through that Cheerful Cherub book, I began to realize that Rebecca McCann’s little cartoons operated on a level of sophistication and yes, even wisdom, far beyond that of the “Love Is …” pieces.
Take “Masks” (above). “And yet sometimes I see/A prisoner behind their eyes.” That’s not “Love Is …” or “Family Circle”–that’s the existential attitude in four lines of iambic pentameter. Or “Innocence,” which could easily be read as a damning commentary on the detachment with which we view events going on in the world around us. “Oh, the dreadful business in Gaza. Well, nothing to do with me.”
Rebecca McCann began publishing Cheerful Cherub cartoons in the Chicago Evening Post around 1917, when she was just twenty, after editor Julian Mason took an interest in the little drawings and verses that dropped out of McCann’s portfolio as she tried to show him more serious work. The feature was soon picked up for syndication, and at its peak appeared in over 100 papers around the United States.
McCann also continued to work as an illustrator for magazine stories and wrote a childrens’ book, About Annabel
Meanwhile, McCann’s personal life was a series of disasters. She moved to New York City in late 1917, where she met, fell in love with and married Harold “Jimmie” Watson, an Army pilot, five days before he shipped out to France. Although he made it through the war, he died in an accident not long after. On the rebound, she married another officer, this time in the Naval Medical Corps, but the marriage soon ran into problems and the couple divorced. Around 1924, she met the novelist Harvey Fergusson (whose 1923 novel, Capitol Hill
Fergusson was married at the time, but the two felt enough of a connection that Fergusson eventually divorced his wife and married McCann. Fergusson was working on perhaps his best-known book, Wolf Song
In December of 1927, Fergusson drove down to Albuquerque, where they planned to spend Christmas with his parents, while McCann took a quick shopping trip out to San Francisco. Never having a robust constitution, the trip and the winter weather brought on a cold. A few days after arriving in Albuquerque, it developed into pneumonia and McCann died soon after. She was just 32. Fergusson had her body cremated and scattered her ashes along the shore of Lake Michigan near Chicago.
Covici-Friede collected 1,001 Cheerful Cherub cartoons, along with a short memoir by McCann’s friend, Mary Graham Bonner, in Complete Cheerful Cherub
“I’m not trying to reform the world or to make every one smile,” she once told Bonner. “I’m trying to make my little verses human; sometimes they’re sarcastic, sometimes they’re ‘flip.’ They’re cynical, too, and I like to make them about all subjects–including the frailties of the readers….” And of the author, too, as one quickly sees.
There are a few copies available, starting at over $100: http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/submitRare.cgi?author=McCann&title=About+Annabel&keyword=&isbn=&order=PRICE&ordering=ASC&binding=Any+Binding&min=&max=&exclude=&nopod=on&match=Y&dispCurr=USD&timeout=20&store=ABAA&store=Alibris&store=Abebooks&store=Amazon&store=AmazonUK&store=Biblio&store=Bibliophile&store=Bibliopoly&store=Booksandcollectibles&store=ILAB&store=Half&store=Powells&store=ZVAB
Anyone know how I can get a copy of “About Annabel” by Rebecca McCann?
I have a 1932 edition of this book. It is a delight to read! It was given to me long ago and I cherish it dearly.
In her own introduction to the first The Cheerful Cherub Rebecca McCann herself offers the cheerful story of how the cherub came to be. She notes that it was the summer of 1914. (“…so the Cherub began with the war, a nice time for me to begin my career of professional rejoicing.”) By her account, the next September she went to the Chicago Evening Post with a portfolio of her school work, including that from her first year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago “and bearding an editor in his den I asked for a job.” He noticed the Cheerful Cherub verses and drawings much more than the school drawings with which I expected to demonstrate my genius. The editor, Mr. Mason, hired McCann “with the understanding that I was to furnish a cherub a day.” No doubt the Academy in 1914 had very bucolic surroundings as that is where she said she spent hours lying “out on the ground, soaking up happiness from the sun and the earth, and since I was happy I wrote cheerful verses.”
If you click on the title wherever it’s mentioned in the article, you will be taken to a listing for the book on Amazon.com. There you will find copies for sale, and most sellers will post books to India or other countries for a higher shipping charge.
Pleas tell me if I can prder it online anf let me have details.
I read this book decades ago from a library.and so much want to pwn a copy.
Can you please tell me how i could order it? And where? I live in India.
I read this book way back in my.college days…and thats 5 decades ago! It made such an impression on my teenage mind..I knew almost all the verses and gad them written on.placards in my hostel room. ?
Never ever thought.I’d be able to locate it..but bless Google,here it is ! I intend to buy a copy and read it to my grand daughter too!
Hope i can find it on flipkart now.
My sister found this book and sent it to me for Christmas, knowing I love old books. As I read it, I realize how insightful she was. Truly enjoying it and am happy to find a bit more history on the author.
I found a first edition copy of the book from 1927, with a sweet inscription and drawing by McCann in it. Wonderful work. Thanks for the information on this page.
My husband bought this book at an estate sale this week. Excellent condition!
Loved the introduction by Bonner! I collect and read vintage books. Thank you
For this article. I will print and save it with my book !
My mother introduced me to Rebecca Mc Cann’s Cheerful Cherub. I’ve treasured the book for about 60 years or so. One of my favorite Cheerful Cherubs is “God made the star-hung skies for us and woods and hills and trees and lakes. I guess he made mosquitos too, but everybody makes mistakes.” Or “I’d like to hug the human race, I feel I so adore it. But if I tried this on the street I fear I’d be arrested for it.”
Thanks for the bio and the love for one of my inherited heroines.
I ‘discovered’ “The Cheerful Cherub” years ago; McCann was an artist whose works transcends time. I find copies of Cherub online I don’t know how many copies I’ve given as gifts.
I think that Rebecca McCann’s life and Cherubs would make a wonderful movie, even with the sad early ending.
Thanks for the comment. No doubt most people today would have to overcome the immediate reaction of thinking, “Oh, it’s a earlier version of those ‘Love Is’ cartoons.”
Last month, while visiting my son in Urbana, IL, we visited Jane Addams Book Shop in Champaign. I, too, was delighted to stumble upon this delightful book. At first, I hesitated at the $24 cost but in the long run I had sense enough to dig deep. Without question, it simply cannot be judged by its cover! This morning, my luck continued by way of finding this post when I decided to find the back story of Rebecca McCann. Thank you for the wealth of information.