George Worsley Adamson

George Worsley Adamson (7 February 1913 – 5 March 2005) was a book illustrator, writer, and cartoonist, who held American and British dual citizenship from 1931.

Early life Adamson was born in the Bronx, New York City. His parents His father sailed back to New York in October 1921, where he died the following year.

George Adamson was educated at the Wigan Mining and Technical College and the Liverpool City School of Art, where he studied etching and engraving under Geoffrey Wedgwood RE.

Between his portrait of his two-year-old son Peter One Morning (completed in 1950) and Killerton from the North (1979), however, there was a gap of many years during which he pursued his career as illustrator and cartoonist. He went back to printmaking with great enthusiasm in the late 1970s, exhibiting his works both new and old at the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. Among his later prints are portraits of John Ogdon (1979) and Patricia Beer (1982). Ilkley Literature Festival: An exhibition in honour of Ted Hughes, devised and presented by Keith Sagar to mark the poet's involvement in the Ilkley Literature Festival, May 27–31, 1975 (Church House, Church Street, Ilkley) The London Gallery, N. La Cienega, Los Angeles: "Famous British Cartoonists", 19 May to 15 June 1975 Market Print Gallery, Exeter: "George Adamson Cartoons Christmas Show", 1976? The University of Liverpool, Senate House, Abercromby Square: "Contemporary British Artists: an exhibition of work donated to the Rural Preservation Association", 1977 Market Print Gallery, Exeter: "Etchings", 30 September to 31 October 1978 SouthEast Art Centres, "Fantasy Books and Illustrations", 1979 Ilkley Literature Festival: "Lord Gnome Show", 1979 The Library, Victoria & Albert Museum: "Illustrations to Ted Hughes Poems", 1979. Exhibition organized by Mark Haworth-Booth, Assistant Keeper of Photographs, Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs City Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester: "The Art of Ted Hughes: An exhibition to mark the poet's fiftieth birthday, devised and presented by Keith Sagar", 12 August to 7 September 1980 The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, 17 January to 12 February 1981 The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, 8 to 28 June 1981 The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, 20 March to 10 April 1982 (Centenary Exhibition) Hamilton Gallery, London: "Eye Art at Hamilton's, drawings from the Denis Thatcher letters books", 1982 Maison du Champ de Mars, Rennes: "Exposition des artistes d'Exeter", 1982: etchings exhibited: Filming The Onedin Line, Peacocks, St Andrews Cathedral, Caerphilly Castle The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, 30 October to 26 November 1982 The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, 26 October to 27 November 1983 The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, 18 September to 11 October 1987 The Royal Festival Hall, London: "Punch 150th Anniversary Exhibition", 11 October to 17 November 1991 National Portrait Gallery: "Eyetimes: 35 years of Private Eye", 1996 British Library: "The Page is Printed: a Ted Hughes exhibition," 7 November 2003 to 24 February 2004 McLean Museum, Greenock, Inverclyde's War: an exhibition to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of hostilities, August 2005: reproduction of several of Adamson's wartime drawings of RAF Greenock Cartoon Museum, London: "Private Eye at 45": an exhibition to mark the 45th anniversary of the founding of Private Eye, 26 October 2006 to 4 February 2007: featuring two of Adamson's drawings illustrating "Auberon Waugh's Diary" and an unpublished drawing to mark Private Eye'''s 21st birthday in 1983 Victoria and Albert Museum, London: "Private Eye: The First 50 Years", 18 October 2011 to 8 January 2012: featuring Adamson's cover drawing for One for the Road Victoria and Albert Museum, London: "George W. Adamson: A Twentieth-Century Illustrator", 3 April to 30 September 2012 British Library (Folio Society Gallery), London: "Picture This: Children's Illustrated Classics", 4 October 2013 to 26 January 2014: featuring Adamson's cover design for The Iron Man by Ted Hughes

Awards and honours Adamson was the winner of the P.G. Wodehouse Centenary Illustration Award in Punch in 1981 and was subsequently commissioned to illustrate an anthology of P.G. Wodehouse short stories for the Folio Society published in 1983.

George Adamson was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1987.