This Week's Sneak Peek

A page of character sketches drawn in advance of this week's cartoon:

Before posting Saturday's review of May It Amuse the Court, I did take care to check whether John Cassel's given name could possibly have been Ino Casals, as he is credited in the book.

Although the New York Evening World referred to him by his initials "J.H." and later as "John Cassel," his signature does appear as if it were "Jno Cassel" or even "Gino Cassel."

"More" by John Cassel in New York Evening World, April 20, 1919

If he were a first or second generation immigrant, as several other cartoonists of the late 19th and early 20th Century were, it is conceivable that some official at Ellis Island summarily Anglicized his name, or a parochial school nun decided to just change his name to that of a saint. Ellis Island officials and nuns were the coffee baristas of their day.

"After the Downpour" by John Cassel in New York World, November 10, 1922

I did not find a great deal of biographical information about Cassel, but contemporary sources all name him John. My guess is that what appears to be a lower case "o" in his signature is supposed to be a period: "Jn. Cassel."

Incidentally, the illustration credit for the cartoon in May It Amuse the Court is listed as "Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch." Cassel quit the New York World in 1927 over disagreement with management regarding New York Governor Alfred E. Smith's presidential campaign. After that, he was distributed by McClure Syndicate, quitting in May of 1929 to "devote his time to etching and experimental art work." 

By 1932, he had resumed drawing editorial cartoons, now at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. (It would have been odd if he had quit one Joseph Pulitzer newspaper, the Evening World, only to go to work for another, the Post-Dispatch. The St. Louis newspaper did, however, reprint Cassel's work occasionally when Daniel Fitzpatrick was on vacation. The Daily Eagle is correctly listed in the text of May It Amuse the Court as the original publication for the Cassel cartoon.)