Meet the legendary cartoonist behind the famed Addams family in his first biographical expose. Written with exclusive access to Charles Addams's intimates and private papers, readers get front-row seats to the widespread rumors and storytelling genius behind The Addams Family.

"Linda Davis has dug deep in her fabulous biography of The New Yorker's most mysterious and spooky (and all-together ooky) artist. The book's a scream." —Michael Maslin

"A person's charm is difficult for a writer to convey on the printed page, but Linda Davis has managed it. At the close, I found myself feeling terribly cheated that I hadn't had the pleasure of Charlie Addams's company." —Edward Sorel, The New York Observer

"If you don't appreciate martinis with eyeballs in them, this is not the book for you. For the rest of us, here is an irresistible riot of a read, an exhilarating, expertly mixed cocktail of words and images. Charles Addams's life was crowded with women—famous women, smart women, witty women, garden-variety, drop-dead beautiful women—but in Linda Davis he has truly met his match." —Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Véra

"Chas Addams remains a commanding presence as one of the iconic artists who contributed to shaping that unique satirical art form—the New Yorker cartoon. He was also the only New Yorker artist who, because of his brilliant and unorthodox originality, was the object of widespread and thoroughly misplaced fascination about his mental stability. Linda Davis has delved into his work and the brain, hand, and raucous life that shaped it, offering a complex, entertaining and completely riveting portrait of a gentle, loving man, and his passionate and engaged embrace of life." —Ed Koren, author and political cartoonist for The New Yorker