Weller, Lewis D.

Comic Strip Album Illustrating the Life of Betsy Weller and Her Family. [with] The Normal Notebook.

Rochester, New York: ca. 1934-1970. Item #1272

Together two items. Image size 250 x 175 mm [10 x 7 in.] 80 original pen-and-ink and pencil cartoon drawings, and 25 reproductions of original artwork. Pasted on black backing paper and housed in a 3-ring leatherette binder with zipper closure.

With: The Normal Notebook, Keep Out: "Dis here Book and All What’s in it am de Property of one Lutey Dimkerinous Weller. Now Just a Friendly Warnin’ dese Pages am Passable but Dangerous! You Proceeds at yer own Peril. A Rare Collection of Gems of Song, Voise, Art und so Weiter!" [Potsdam, ca. 1912-14]. 215 x 195 mm [8 ½ x 7 ¾ in.]

Stiff paper covers, cloth spine; cover with some soiling, but remarkably intact. Printed signature on upper cover: "Lewis Weller, Sole Owner: Keep Out." The back cover reads, “Did you like the Book? If so tell Others. If not—keep you thoughts to yourself, there’s something the matter with you. // Lewis D. Weller.”

This comic strip album was created by Lewis Weller, a traveling salesman for the John C. Winston Company, a book publisher in Philadelphia. Weller was the Rochester, N. Y. sales representative and traveled throughout New York State selling books and albums. During his travels he stayed at dozens of hotels from Jamestown to Albany and, using hotel stationery, made comic drawings for his daughter Betsy and his wife Mildred whom he missed terribly during his travels.

The comic album begins in 1944 when Betsy was in 7^th grade, takes her through high school at Western High, and then on to St. Lawrence College. Weller made drawings of the events of Betsy’s schooldays and made short quips about the events he chronicled. He drew her studying for a test, playing in a yard, going to a game, gabbing with girlfriends, and he offers his take on her first boyfriend, her graduation from Western High, and the first days at college. He continues through the 1950’s, capturing the major events of her life in comic relief, and with a great sense of love and hope for her future.

He also makes drawings, penciling in comic sayings from his life with his wife, his boss, his friends, and the everyday events that he witnessed during his travels across New York State. By the 1960’s he makes comic drawings satirizing the Beatnik movement, his 50^th high school class reunion, and his transformation into a balding, aged man, whose wife kids him about his protruding belly and balding head.

The Normal Notebook begins in 1912 and chronicles his life as a teenager and high school student in Potsdam, N.Y. It contains all the elements so vividly displayed in the Comic Album, showing Lewis’s growth as a caricaturist and comedic writer. The Notebook also includes short stories, some minor—very minor—poetry, and a few drawings that illustrate stereotypes of black people that were common in the day.

A wonderful survival, documenting the life of a father devoted to his daughter Betsy and his wife Mildred.

Lewis D. Weller is listed in the 1934 Directory of East Rochester with the address of 217 Genesee Park Blvd; the notice includes his wife’s name, Mildred. His name had previously appeared in the 9 October 1918 edition of the Courier and Freeman, the hometown newspaper of Potsdam, citing his naval training in Pelham, New York during the final days of WWI.

Price: $2,700.00