Steadman, Ralph 1936- (Ralph Idris Steadman)

PERSONAL:

Born May 15, 1936, in Wallasey, Cheshire, England; son of Lionel Raphael (a commercial traveler) and Gwendoline Steadman; married Sheila Thwaite, September 5, 1959 (divorced, 1972); married Anna Deverson (a teacher), December 8, 1972; children: (first marriage) Suzannah, Genevieve, Theo, Henry; (second marriage) Sadie. Education: Attended East Ham Technical College, 1957-64, and London College of Printing and Graphic Arts, 1958-64. Politics: "Apolitical." Religion: Church of England. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, collecting, writing, fishing, sculpture, astronomy.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Sobel Weber Associates, Inc., 146 E. 19th St., New York, NY 10003.

CAREER:

Freelance cartoonist and illustrator. Early in career worked at odd jobs, including a manager trainee with F.W. Woolworth Co., Colwyn Bay, North Wales, a pool attendant in Rhyl, North Wales, and an apprentice aircraft engineer for de Havilland Aircraft Co., Broughton, England, 1952. Kemsley (Thomson) Newspapers, London, England, cartoonist, 1956-59; did freelance work for Punch, Private Eye, and Telegraph during the 1960s; New Statesman, London, political cartoonist, 1978-80. Artist-in-residence, Exeter Cathedral and Festival, 1989, and Cheltenham Festival, 1994. Exhibitions: Work exhibited at the National Theatre, 1977, Royal Festival Hall, 1984, Royal Albert Hall, 1997, Les Invalides, 1997, and Warrington Museum, 1998. Military service: Royal Air Force, 1954-56.

MEMBER:

Chelsea Arts Club.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Francis Williams Book Illustration Award, 1972, for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland; gold award, Designers and Art Directors Association, 1977, for outstanding contributions to illustration; silver award, Designers and Art Directors Association, 1977, for outstanding editorial illustration; recipient of merit award and voted illustrator of the year, American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1979; Silver Pencil Award (Holland) for children's book illustrations, 1982, for Inspector Mouse; Black Humour Award, France, 1986; W.H. Smith Illustration Award for Best Illustrated Book, and First Prize, Bologna Children's Book Fair, both 1987, both for I, Leonardo; BBC Design Award, 1987, for Halley's Comet postage stamps; Critici in Erba Prize, Bologna Children's Book Fair, 1987, for That's My Dad; D.Litt., University of Kent (Canterbury, England).

WRITINGS:

FOR ADULTS

Still Life with Raspberry; or, the Bumper Book of Steadman, Rapp & Whiting (London, England), 1969.

Dogs Bodies, Abelard-Schuman, 1970, Paddington (New York, NY), 1977.

Zwei Esel und eine Bruecke, Nord Süd Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 1972, published as Two Donkeys and a Bridge, Andersen (London, England), 1983.

Bumper Book of Boobs, Deutsch, 1973.

America, Straight Arrow (London, England), 1974, revised edition, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 1989.

Blumen für den Mond (title means "Flowers for the Moon"), Nord Süd Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 1974.

Sigmund Freud, Paddington (New York, NY), 1979.

A Leg in the Wind and Other Canine Curses, Putnam (New York, NY), 1982.

No Good Dogs, Perigee (New York, NY), 1982.

I, Leonardo, Summit (New York, NY), 1983.

Between the Eyes, Cape (London, England), 1984, Summit (New York, NY), 1986.

Paranoids: From Socrates to Joan Collins, Harrap (London, England), 1986.

Who? Me? No! Why?, Steam, 1986.

Scar Strangled Banger, Salem (Topsfield, MA), 1988.

The Big I Am, Summit (New York, NY), 1988.

Visagen und Visionen: Karikaturen, kritische Grafik, Illustrationen, Wilhem-Busch-Gesellschaft (Hannover, Germany), 1988.

Near the Bone, Arrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Tales of the Weird, Cape (London, England), 1990.

The Grapes of Ralph: Wine according to Ralph Steadman, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1992.

Still Life with Bottle: Whiskey according to Ralph Steadman, Ebury (London, England), 1994, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1997.

Jones of Colorado, Ebury (London, England), 1995.

The Book of Jones, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1997.

Gonzo: The Art, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1998.

Untrodden Grapes: New Wines of the World, according to Ralph Steadman, Ebury (London, England), 1998, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2005.

(With Kurt Vonnegut) Modern Fiction and Art: Prints by Contemporary Authors (essays), University of Kentucky Art Museum (Lexington, KY), 2001.

Tales of the Weirrd, Firefly Books (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002.

Doodaaa: The Balletic Art of Gavin Twinge: A Triography, Bloomsbury (London, England), 2002.

(Illustrator) Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2003.

Alice in Wonderland, Firefly (Buffalo, NY), 2003.

The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories; Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2006.

JUVENILE

Ralph Steadman's Jelly Book, Dobson (London, England), 1967, published as Jelly Book, Scroll (New York, NY), 1970.

(With Fiona Saint) The Yellow Flowers, Dobson (London, England), 1968, Southwest Book Service, 1974.

(With Richard Ingrams) The Tale of Driver Grope, Dobson (London, England), 1969.

The Little Red Computer, McGraw (New York, NY), 1969.

The Bridge, Collins (London, England), 1972, Collins & World (Cleveland, OH), 1975.

Ralph Steadman's Bumper to Bumper Book for Children, Pan (London, England), 1973.

Cherrywood Cannon (based on a story told by Dimitri Sidjanski), Paddington (New York, NY), 1978.

That's My Dad, Andersen (London, England), 1986.

No Room to Swing a Cat, Andersen (London, England), 1989.

Teddy! Where Are You?, Andersen (London, England), 1994.

AS ILLUSTRATOR

Frank Dickens, Fly away Peter, Dobson (London, England), 1963, Scroll Press (New York, NY), 1970.

Mischa Damjan, Das Eichhorn und das Nashoernchen, Nord Süd Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 1964, published as The Big Squirrel and the Little Rhinoceros, Norton (New York, NY), 1965.

Daisy Ashford and Angela Ashford, Love and Marriage: Three Stories, Hart-Davis (London, England), 1965, reprinted, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1982.

Daisy Ashford, Where Love Lies Deepest, Hart-Davis (London, England), 1966.

Mischa Damjan, Die Falschen Flamingos, Nord Süd Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 1967, published as The False Flamingoes, Dobson (London, England), 1968, Scroll Press (New York, NY), 1970.

Charles L. Dodgson, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (also see below), Dobson, 1967, C.N. Potter (New York, NY), 1973.

Harold Wilson, The Thoughts of Chairman Harold, compiled by Tariq Ali, Gnome (London, England), 1967.

Mischa Damjan, Der kleine Prinz und sein Kater, [Germany], translation published as The Little Prince and the Tiger Cat, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1968.

Randolph Stow, Midnite: The Story of a Wild Colonial Boy, Penguin (New York, NY), 1969, reprinted, Bodley Head (London, England), 1984.

Tony Palmer, Born under a Bad Sign, Kimber (London, England), 1970.

Mischa Damjan, Zwei Katzen in Amerika, Nord Süd Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), published as Two Cats in America, Longman Young Books, 1970.

Patricia Mann, 150 Careers in Advertising: With Equal Opportunity for Men and Women, Longman (London, England), 1971.

Brian Patten, And Sometimes It Happens, Steam, 1972.

John Fuller, Boys in a Pie, Bernard Stone, 1972.

Charles Causley, Contemporary Poets Set to Music, Turret (London, England), 1972.

Kurt Baumann, Der Schlafhund und der Wachlund, Nord Süd Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 1972, published as Dozy and Hawkeye, Hutchinson, 1974.

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, Paladin (London, England), 1972, reprinted, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1998.

Ted Hughes, In the Little Girl's Angel Gaze, Steam, 1972.

Charles L. Dodgson, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (also see below), MacGibbon & Kee (London, England), 1972, C.N. Potter (New York, NY), 1973.

Edward Lucie-Smith, Two Poems of Night, Turret (London, England), 1972.

Edward Lucie-Smith, The Rabbit, Turret (London, England), 1973.

John Letts, compiler, A Little Treasury of Limericks Fair and Foul, Deutsch, 1973.

Jane Deverson, Night Edge, Bettiscombe, 1973.

Flann O'Brien, The Poor Mouth—An Beal Bacht: A Bad Story about the Hard Life, Hart-Davis/MacGibbon (London, England), 1973, Viking (New York, NY), 1974.

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail, Allison & Busby (London, England), 1974.

Charles L. Dodgson, The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits (also see below), Michael Dempsey (London, England), 1975, C.N. Potter (New York, NY), 1976.

Bernard Stone, Emergency Mouse: A Story, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1978.

Ted Hughes, The Threshold, Steam, 1979.

Bernard Stone, Inspector Mouse, Andersen (London, England), 1980, Holt (New York, NY), 1981.

Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt, Paladin (London, England), 1980.

Adrian Mitchell, For Beauty Douglas: Adrian Mitchell's Collected Poems, 1953-79, Allison & Busby (London, England), 1982.

Alan Sillitoe, Israel Sketchbook, Steam, 1983.

Hunter S. Thompson, The Curse of Lono, Bantam (New York, NY), 1983, Taschen (London, England), 2005.

Bernard Stone, Quasimodo Mouse, Andersen (London, England), 1984.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, Harrap (London, England), 1985.

Charles L. Dodgson, The Complete Alice and Hunting of the Snark (contains Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, and The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits), Salem (Topsfield, MA), 1986.

George Orwell, Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1995.

Adrian Mitchell, Who Killed Dylan Thomas?, Ty Llên (Swansea, Wales), 1998.

Roald Dahl, The Mildenhall Treasure, Cape (London, England), 1999, Knopf (New York, NY), 2000.

Little.com (children's stories, pictorial), Andersen (London, England), 2000.

Also author of Friends Echo (poetry), 1990, and My After-dinner Speech on the Occasion of the Centenary Dinner at Christ Church, Oxford on the 14th January, 1998, to Celebrate the Life of Lewis Carroll, White Stone, 1998. Contributor of a libretto to Richard Harvey's Plague and the Moonflowers: An Oratorio, Altus Records, 1999.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Bridge was made into a filmstrip with cassette by Listening Library, 1976.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ralph Steadman is both author and artist of a diverse array of books, nearly all of them humorous in some vein. Beginning his career as a political cartoonist in his native England, Steadman made a name for himself skewering American culture in the 1970s, and he has written and illustrated several books for children. Steadman's visual imagery was described as "a crescendo of angry screams demanding reason and of almost apoplectic howls protesting that the world is failing to behave reasonably," by Patrick Skene Catling in the Spectator.

Steadman was born in 1936 near Liverpool, and was sent to a rigorous boarding school where he was treated cruelly; he eventually dropped out of school to work at a number of odd jobs, including rat catcher. After a stint in the Royal Air Force, he began cartooning and enrolled in drawing classes. His career was launched when well-known British humor magazines began accepting his submissions. On a visit to New York, Steadman landed an assignment to illustrate a story on the Kentucky Derby, and while there he met Hunter S. Thompson. The two became fast friends, and the article with its vicious illustrations caused somewhat of a stir. Steadman and Thompson collaborated on many other critical assessments of American culture—Thompson wrote with verve and frankness about the seamy underside of life in America, while Steadman's images became indelibly associated with it. The relationship culminated in the publication of Thompson's best-known work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, illustrated by Steadman and first published in 1972.

By this time Steadman had also illustrated a number of books written by others, including a 1967 edition titled Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland that won the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award. Steadman also began writing his own works; his first in the children's genre was another title from 1967, Ralph Steadman's Jelly Book. The Little Red Computer, Ralph Steadman's Bumper to Bumper Book for Children, and several more followed. In 1986, he wrote and illustrated That's My Dad, which featured two children talking about their fathers, describing them in increasingly outrageous terms; the illustrations depict their imaginarily monstrous parents. In No Room to Swing a Cat, published in 1989, a minuscule little boy, dwarfed by his surroundings, complains that his bedroom is too small. He shows his mother that it is too small even to swing the proverbial cat, demonstrating with a variety of other animals to further drive home his point. Reviewing the work in Books for Keeps, Pam Harwood commended Steadman's "brilliantly funny and perceptive drawings."

Teddy! Where Are You? was inspired by Steadman's own grandchildren. Surprised when he realized that his granddaughters did not know what a teddy bear was, Steadman depicts the search for the beloved stuffed toy of his own childhood. He discovers a used-toy shopkeeper who bears an uncanny resemblance to his teddy. Steadman's "familiar scratchy drawings exactly match this story, which is funny, tender, wise," claimed Marcus Crouch of Junior Bookshelf.

Steadman has also illustrated a few unusual biographies, beginning with Sigmund Freud in 1979 and I, Leonardo four years later. The latter title features Steadman's illustrations of the famed Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci at work near some of his best-known images. The 1984 autobiography Between the Eyes was followed by one of Steadman's more controversial works to date, The Big I Am. A mock-autobiography of God in conversation form, its pages feature the author's irreverent interpretations of the creation story and criticisms of organized religion. "The whole thing is illustrated (or constituted by) brilliant drawings of explosions with signs of nearly-human faces and forms, agonies, primal chaos, primal fire, emerging figures, devils and angles, demagogues being foul, cities going wrong, and endless deserts with skeletons," noted D.E. Jenkins in the Listener.

Steadman lives in a Georgian manor home near Kent, England, with his wife and daughter, and has four children by a previous marriage as well. He keeps sheep there and plays the trumpet for a hobby. He has also illustrated a series of popular children's books by Bernard Stone, beginning with Emergency Mouse: A Story. The 1980 work Inspector Mouse won Holland's Silver Pencil Award for children's book illustrating. In 2000, Knopf published The Mildenhall Treasure by Roald Dahl, which featured Steadman's illustrations. The work recounts the true story of a English farm worker who found a trove of Roman-era silver and was denied compensation for it.

In Untrodden Grapes: New Wines of the World, according to Ralph Steadman, Steadman chronicles his world travels to the various regions that produce wine in an attempt to uncover the most unusual vintages and/or methods of winemaking. He learns different things in each country he visits through his encounters with different wine experts at their vineyards, and shares those lessons with readers through words and illustrations. In an interview on the Harcourt Web site, Steadman discusses his travels and his experiences writing the book. Regarding his process while on the road, he noted: "I tend to sketch in notebooks and take pictures and make written notes. I do finished work back in the studio, most of the time. Otherwise I would have to cart all kinds of stuff." In a review for Booklist, Patricia Monaghan wrote of Steadman's effort: "Utterly distinctive drawings are the stars of his eccentric book about the world of wine, which his curmudgeonly prose just complements." A reviewer for Publishers Weekly suggested that "readers dithering over the right bottle to surprise a wine-loving friend with might do better to shop at the bookstore for a Steadman instead."

In a combination memoir/biography/tribute, The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories; Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me, Steadman looks back on his longtime friendship and collaboration with writer Hunter S. Thompson that lasted for thirty-five years and eventually ended with Thompson's suicide in 2005. Steadman had illustrated many of Thompson's works, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and also saw Thompson through many of his personal upheavals. He makes no attempt to whitewash Thompson's volatile personality but portrays him honestly to the best of his recollection, sharing many personal anecdotes of times spent with the famous writer, including Thompson's frequent admonishments to Steadman that he should never attempt to write himself. He also includes many letters written between himself and Thompson, illustrating the arc of their relationship. Olivia Shean, in a review for New Statesman, called Steadman's effort "an utterly engrossing read," commenting that he manages to "skillfully capture Thompson's narcotic-fuelled chaos." In an interview with Philip Jones for the Bookseller, Steadman explained why his relationship with Thompson survived despite bickering and his extreme personality: "You absorbed the bad because it was an important part of the whole. My drawings were better for it. We both had a similar sort of way of being crazy, but he was crazy in a way that I could never be, because he was suicidally crazy." Not all critics were satisfied with Steadman's portrayal. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews remarked: "Bitching about the state of the world and listing America's faults, the author begins in this text to sound like an old man wandering and cursing." Others found the tone in keeping with the subject. In a review for Reference & Research Book News, a contributor called the book "charmingly graphic and profane."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Steadman, Ralph, The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me, Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Bloomsbury Review, November-December, 1997, R.K. Dickson, review of Still Life with Bottle: Whisky according to Ralph Steadman, p. 35.

Booklist, February 1, 1984, Alan Moores, review of I, Leonardo, p. 783; October 15, 1998, Ray Olson, review of Gonzo: The Art, p. 386; November 15, 2005, Patricia Monaghan, review of Untrodden Grapes: New Wines of the World, according to Ralph Steadman, p. 11.

Books, September-October, 1996, review of That's My Dad, p. 24.

Bookseller, August 11, 2006, Philip Jones, "Hunter's Shadow: Cartoonist Ralph Steadman Tells Philip Jones about His Memories of Long-time Collaborator and Friend, Hunter S. Thompson," p. 18.

Books for Keeps, May, 1991, Pam Harwood, review of No Room to Swing a Cat, p. 13; May, 1994, Trevor Dickinson, review of Teddy!, p. 35.

Books for Your Children, autumn, 1985, Margaret Carter, review of I, Leonardo, p. 5.

Growing Point, September, 1989, Margery Fisher, review of No Room to Swing a Cat, p. 5224.

Junior Bookshelf, October 10, 1986, Marcus Crouch, review of That's My Dad, p. 181; October, 1989, review of No Room to Swing a Cat, p. 220; June, 1994, Marcus Crouch, review of Teddy!, p. 98.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 1996, review of The Grapes of Ralph: Wine according to Ralph Steadman, p. 960; July 1, 2006, review of The Joke's Over, p. 670.

Listener, December 1, 1988, D.E. Jenkins, "On the Edge of the Abyss," pp. 30-31.

New Statesman, October 16, 2006, Olivia Shean, "Hunter Gatherer," p. 60.

New York Times Book Review, January 11, 1987, Draper Hill, review of Between the Eyes, p. 19; May 14, 1989, Michael Cart, review of The Big I Am, p. 22.

Observer (London, England), December 4, 1983, William Weaver, "Classical Revivals," p. 31; July 19, 1998, Chris Riddell, review of Gonzo, p. 15.

Publishers Weekly, August 12, 1996, review of The Grapes of Ralph, p. 78; November 2, 1998, review of Gonzo, p. 66; October 10, 2005, review of Untrodden Grapes, p. 51.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2007, review of The Joke's Over.

Rolling Stone, December 11, 1980, Greil Marcus, review of Sigmund Freud, p. 30.

School Library Journal, December, 2000, Patricia A. Dollish, review of The Mildenhall Treasure, p. 157.

Spectator, October 13, 1984, Patrick Skene Catling, "Gonzo Art," p. 33; December 12, 1987, Richard Ingrams, "Humour Books," p. 33.

Washington Post Book World, September 21, 1980, review of Sigmund Freud, p. 12.

ONLINE

Harcourt Web site,http://www.harcourtbooks.com/ (November 13, 2007), Steadman interview.