Edward Koren 1935-2023

From The New Yorker and Ink Spill.

New Yorker cartoonist Ed Koren, known for his furry or fuzzy beast, has died at eighty-seven at his home in Brookfield, Vermont.

Over the last 60 years, he produced more than a thousand gags, illustrations, and covers for the magazine, a feat equalled only by five other New Yorker artists.

Edward Benjamin Koren was born in New York City on December 13, 1935 and graduated from Columbia University in 1957.

He did graduate work in etching and engraving with S. W. Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris, France, and received an M.F.A. degree from Pratt Institute. 

As a freshman at Columbia, he began contributing cartoons to The Jester, the college humor magazine, and in his senior year he became the editor. 

By then, through a classmate’s family connection, he had found his way to James Geraghty, the art editor of The New Yorker, and begun submitting his work.

In May, 1962, the magazine published its very first Koren cartoon: a bedraggled writer, laboring at a typewriter, wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the word “SHAKESPEARE.”

In 1964, he received an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, and that fall began a long-running teaching gig at Brown University.

He resided with his family in Vermont where he was a member of the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Department, formerly serving as captain.