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THE CANDIDATE

In an interview yesterday, Gluyas Williams '11, renowned cartoonist and illustrator, was most enthusiastic in his praise of the training afforded aspiring artists and writers through the medium of college publications. Williams drew for the Lampoon while an undergraduate at Harvard and attributes the inspiration for his present career to that experience.

"Besides providing invaluable practise in execution," Williams remarked, "work on college magazines and papers imbues the aspirant with confidence, thereby saving useful years when he is working professionally. Of two men, both starting work on a newspaper together and both having the same amount of technique, the man with the college experience has an enormous advantage over his rival."

As regards his contemporaries in college Williams feels that in almost every case it was possible to pick out those whose talent would bring them fame in their particular field of art. These were not necessarily those whose execution was most perfected.

"In cartooning, as in every other creative art, original ideas count a good deal more than any machine-like reproductive quality. For example, the modern newspaper artist, in addition to creating three hundred and sixty-five different ideas each year, must contend with the difficulty of working 'out of the weather,' that is, in order to insure publication at a given date he must have his material ready from six to eight weeks ahead. Thus on a cool June day the artist must be mentally sweating under a torrid August sun, while in October his characters are busily shoveling snow. Add to this the fact that the strip must be equally acceptable from Maine to Texas and it is obvious that it takes considerably more than faultless execution to make a successful cartoonist."

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