Editing Cathy Guisewite

{{short description|American cartoonist (born 1950)}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| image = File:Cathy Guisewite (1987).jpg
| imagesize = 
| caption = Guisewite in 1987
| birth_name  = Cathy Lee Guisewite
| birth_date  = {{birth date and age|1950|9|5}}
| birth_place = [[Dayton, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date  = 
| death_place = 
| area = [[Cartoonist]]
| alias = 
| notable works = ''[[Cathy]]'' (1976–2010)
| awards = [[Emmy Awards|Emmy Award]] (1987)<br />[[National Cartoonists Society#Reuben Award|Reuben Award]] (1993)
| website = {{URL|http://www.cathyguisewite.com}}
| signature = 
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Christopher Wilkinson]]|1997|2010|end=divorce}}
}}

'''Cathy Lee Guisewite''' (born September 5, 1950) is an American [[cartoonist]] who created the [[comic strip]] ''[[Cathy]]'', which had a 34-year run. The strip focused on a career woman facing the issues and challenges of eating, work, relationships, and having a mother—or as the character put it in one strip, "the four basic guilt groups."

==Early life==
Guisewite was born in [[Dayton, Ohio]],<ref name= INT /> to William L. and Anne Guisewite. She was raised in [[Midland, Michigan]], with older sister Mary Anne Nagy<ref>[http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/mary-anne-nagy.html fineartamerica.com], Mary Anne Nagy.</ref> and younger sister Mickey. Guisewite graduated from [[Midland High School (Midland, Michigan)|Midland High School]] in 1968.

She attended the [[University of Michigan]] in [[Ann Arbor, Michigan|Ann Arbor]], where she was a member of the [[Delta Delta Delta]] sorority. In 1972, she earned a bachelor's degree in English.

==Career==
After college, Guisewite followed her father's vocation and began working in advertising<ref name=INT>{{cite web|last=Heintjes|first=Tom|title=The Cathy Guisewite Interview|work=Hogan's Alley|date=April 24, 2012|url=https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/cathy-guisewite-the-goodbye-girl/|access-date=5 August 2013}}</ref> at [[Campbell-Ewald]], then Norman Prady, and settled at [[Doner Company|W.B. Doner & Co.]] near Detroit. She became a vice president of the firm in 1976.<ref name=ANSWER>{{cite web |title=Cathy Lee Guisewite|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/cathy-guisewite|website= Answers.com |publisher= Gale Encyclopedia of Biography|access-date=6 August 2013}}</ref>

<!--Guisewite's first cartoon strip ''Roxbury'' (syndicated by Copley News Service for Early Cartoons) was published from 1963 to 1973. REMOVED --  no reference, and if she was so flabbergasted to be published with _Cathy_, it doesn't make that much sense she would have already had a long-running title.-->
She continued to draw funny pictures as an "emotional coping mechanism" to events in her life and work, and she would forward them to her parents.<ref name=INT /> Her mother kept urging her to send them to a publisher, so she did. "My entire goal with my submission package was to get my mother off my back. My goal was not to do a comic strip. It was to make Mom quit telling me I could do a comic strip."<ref>{{cite interview| first= Cathy| last= Guisewite| url= https://www.hoganmag.com/blog/cathy-guisewite-the-goodbye-girl/| work= Hogan's Alley| title= The Cathy Guisewite Interview| date= April 24, 2012| interviewer= Tom Heintjes| access-date= September 9, 2016}}</ref>

Guisewite was flabbergasted when the company sent her a contract to produce a comic strip. ''[[Cathy]]'' was syndicated to 66 newspapers in 1976<ref name=CSM>{{cite news|last=Sweeney|first=Louise|title=When life becomes a comic strip|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0313/031358.html|access-date=6 August 2013|newspaper=Christian Science Monitor|date=March 13, 1980}}</ref> by [[Universal Press Syndicate]], now [[Universal Uclick]],<ref name= quits /> and Guisewite did both—her advertising job during the day, and comics at night. By 1980, the strip was carried by 150 dailies, she was earning $50,000 per year for ''Cathy'',<ref name=CSM /> she quit the advertising business to work on ''Cathy'' full-time, and she moved to Santa Barbara, California.<ref name=INT />

The comic strip was a "running social commentary"<ref name=NYT>{{cite news|last=Peters|first=Jeremy W.|title=Swimsuit Season's Over. For Good.| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/business/media/16cathy.html?_r=0|access-date=5 August 2013|newspaper= [[The New York Times]] |date=August 15, 2010}}</ref> for her confusion. Guisewite explained, "You were a liberated woman or you were a traditionalist. To even voice vulnerability if you were a feminist was wrong and to voice interest in liberation if you were a more traditional woman was wrong. So I believe the women I was speaking to in the early years of my strip were women like me, who were at that age in our 20s where we were kind of launched into adulthood with a foot in both worlds and no way to really express it.”<ref name=NYT />

Guisewite appeared several times as a guest on the late night TV series ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]''.<ref name=IMDB>{{IMDb name|0347535}}</ref>

At the peak of the strip's popularity in the mid-1990s, it appeared in almost 1,400 papers.<ref name=INT /> However, on August 11, 2010, Guisewite announced the strip's retirement after 34 years. Its run ended on October 3, 2010 (a [[Sunday comics|Sunday strip]]).<ref name=quits>{{cite news| url= http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100811/us-cathy-calls-it-quits/| work= [[HuffPost|Huffington Post]] | title= 'Cathy' comic strip ending after 34 years| first= Maria | last= Sudekum Fisher| date= August 11, 2010| agency= [[Associated Press|AP]]| access-date= September 9, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/28/AR2010092801689.html?wprss=rss_health&sid=ST2010092801746|title=Cathy Guisewite, creator of 'Cathy' comic, on weight| first=Jennifer |last= LaRue Huget|date=September 30, 2010|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2010-10-10}}</ref>

==Awards==
In 1987, she received an [[Emmy Awards|Emmy Award]] for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special ''[[Cathy (TV special)|Cathy]]''.

Guisewite is a member of the [[National Cartoonists Society]] and in 1993 received its highest honor, the [[National Cartoonists Society#Reuben Award|Reuben Award]] for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, for her work in 1992.

Guisewite has been granted honorary degrees from Russell Sage College, Rhode Island College, and Eastern Michigan University.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jEunCgAAQBAJ&q=rhode+island+college+guisewite&pg=PA181|title=Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers, 1945-1980|last=Reynolds|first=Moira Davison|date=2003-02-18|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786415519|language=en}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Guisewite adopted daughter Ivy in 1992, then married screenwriter [[Christopher Wilkinson]] in 1997. Wilkinson has a son, Cooper, but the couple had no children together.<ref name=NCS>{{cite web|title=Member Bios: Cathy Guisewite|url=http://www.reuben.org/ncs/members/bios/Guisewite.jpg|publisher=National Cartoonists Society|access-date=6 August 2013}}</ref><ref name=PEOPLE>{{cite news|last=Gallagher|first=Deirdre|title=Passages|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20451644,00.html|access-date=5 August 2013|newspaper=People|date=December 27, 2010}}</ref> Guisewite and Wilkinson divorced in 2010.<ref name="PEOPLE" />

==Publications==
* ''The Cathy Chronicles'', {{ISBN|0836211162}}, (1978) 
* ''What Do You Mean, I Still Don't Have Equal Rights??!!'', {{ISBN|0836211588}}, (1980) 
* ''I Think I'm Having a Relationship With a Blueberry Pie!'', {{ISBN|0553013378}}, (1981) 
* ''What's a Nice Single Girl Doing with a Double Bed??!'', {{ISBN|0553013165}}, (1981) 
* ''Another Saturday Night of Wild and Reckless Abandon'', {{ISBN|0836212010}}, (1982) 
* ''It Must Be Love, My Face Is Breaking Out'', {{ISBN|0836211839}}, (1982)
* ''Cathy's Valentine's Day Survival Book, How to Live through Another February 14'', {{ISBN|0836212045}}, (1982)
* ''How to Get Rich, Fall in Love, Lose Weight, and Solve all Your Problems by Saying "NO"'', {{ISBN|0836219864}}, (1983)
* ''Eat Your Way to a Better Relationship'', {{ISBN|0836219872}}, (1983)
* ''Climb Every Mountain, Bounce Every Check'', {{ISBN|0836212177}}, (1983)
* ''A Mouthful of Breath Mints and No One to Kiss'', {{ISBN|0836211200}}, (1983)
* ''Men Should Come With Instruction Booklets'', {{ISBN|0836220552}}, (1984)
* ''Sorry I'm Late. My Hair Won't Start'', {{ISBN|0449209253}}, (1985)
* ''Wake Me Up When I'm a Size 5", {{ISBN|0836220692}}, (1985)
* ''My Cologne Backfired'', {{ISBN|0449209288}}, (1986)
* ''Stressed for Success'', {{ISBN|0449210170}}, (1986)
* ''The Salesclerk made me Buy it'', {{ISBN|0449209261}}, (1986) 
* ''Thin Thighs in Thirty Years'', {{ISBN|0836220811}}, (1986)
* ''A Hand To Hold, An Opinion To Reject'', {{ISBN|0836220927}}, (1987)
* ''I'll Pay $5,000 For a Swimsuit That Fits Me!!!'', {{ISBN|0449212483}}, (1987)
* ''It must be something in the ink.'' {{ISBN|0449214311}}, (1987)
* ''Two Pies. One Fork'', {{ISBN|0449212491}}, (1987)
* ''May I borrow Your Husband and Baby?'', {{ISBN|0449216349}}, (1988) 
* ''Why Do the Right Words Always Come Out of the Wrong Mouth?'', {{ISBN|0836218086}}, (1988)
* ''My Granddaughter Has Fleas!!'', {{ISBN|0836218558}}, (1989)
* ''Sue the Hairstylist'', {{ISBN|044921771X}}, (1989)
* ''$14 in the Bank and a $200 Face in My Purse'', {{ISBN|0836218205}}, (1990)
* ''It isn't smog. It's eyeshadow!'', {{ISBN|0449217728}}, (1990) 
* ''The Family thigh problem begins with the mouth'', {{ISBN|044921916X}}, (1990)
* ''Reflections, A Fifteenth Anniversary Collection'', {{ISBN|0836218779}}, (1991) 
* ''Run for Your Life...The Man Is a Cow'', {{ISBN|0449220362}}, (1991) 
* ''The Worse Things Get, the Better We Eat'', {{ISBN|0449219178}}, (1991) 
* ''Between love and madness lies the shoe department'', {{ISBN|0449220370}}, (1992) 
* ''Only Love Can Break a Heart, But a Shoe Sale Can Come Close'', {{ISBN|0836218930}}, (1992)
* ''Dancing Through Life in a Pair of Broken Heels'', {{ISBN|0553091905}}, (1993)
* ''I Want to Be the Person I Used to Be Repulsed By'', {{ISBN|0449222446}}, (1993) 
* ''Like Mother, Like Daughter'', {{ISBN|0836230493}}, (1993)
* ''Revelations from a 45-Pound Purse'', {{ISBN|0836217225}}, (1993)
* ''The Child Within Has Been Awakened But The Old Lady on the Outside Just Collapsed'', {{ISBN|0836217616}}, (1994)
* ''Understanding the "Why" Chromosome'', {{ISBN|0836204239}}, (1995) 
* ''Cathy Twentieth Anniversary Collection'', {{ISBN|0836225236}}, (1996)
* ''Shop Till You Drop Then Sit Down And Buy Shoes'', {{ISBN|0836210689}}, (1996) 
* ''Cathy; Reciped and Foodstyles of the Stars'', {{ISBN|0836221273}}, (1997)  
* ''Abs of Steel, Buns of Cinnamon'', {{ISBN|0836236831}}, (1997)
* ''Girl Food'', {{ISBN|0836231732}}, (1997) 
* ''I Am Woman, Hear Me Snore'', {{ISBN|0836268210}}, (1998)
* ''Confessions to My Mother'', {{ISBN|0836287886}}, (1999)
* ''I'd Scream Except I Look So Fabulous'', {{ISBN|0740700065}}, (1999)
* ''Shoes: Chocolate For The Feet'', {{ISBN|0740705555}}, (2000) 
* ''Food: A Celebration of One of the Four Basic Guilt Groups'', {{ISBN|0740721127}}, (2001) 
* ''Love: A Celebration of One of the Four Basic Guilt Groups'', {{ISBN|0740720619}}, (2001)
* ''Mom: A Celebration of One of the Four Basic Guilt Groups'', {{ISBN|0740720600}}, (2001) 
* ''Work: A Celebration of One of the Four Basic Guilt Groups'', {{ISBN|0740720627}}, (2001) 
* ''Cathy Collection: 25th Anniversary Book'', {{ISBN|0740718436}}, (2001)    
* ''The Wedding of Cathy and Irving'', {{ISBN|0740726684}}, (2005)
* ''The Mother-Daughter Dance'', {{ISBN|144947554X}}, (2016)
* ''Fifty Things that Aren't My Fault: Essays From the Grown-Up Years'', (2019)
* ''Scenes From Isolation'' (2021)

==References==
{{reflist}}
<!-- Guisewite, Mickey (illustrations and introduction by Cathy Guisewite). ''Dancing Through Life in a Pair of Broken Heels'', Bantam Books, 1993.
''Biography'', April 1998, pp. 48-52.
''Editor & Publisher'', October 20, 1990, p. 42; May 15, 1993, p. 43; January 28, 1995, p. 36; April 29, 1995, p. 50.
''Good Housekeeping'', November 1997, p. 27.
''New Woman'', March 1990, p. 90.
''Publishers Weekly'', April 19, 1993, p. 43.
''Redbook'', April 1997, p. 104.
''Savvy Woman'', January 1988, p. 50.  -->

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0347535}}
*[http://www.makers.com/cathy-guisewite Cathy Guisewite]; video produced by ''[[Makers: Women Who Make America]]''
*https://www.cathyguisewite.com/ Cathy Guisewite website
*

{{Ohio Women's Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guisewite, Cathy}}
[[Category:1950 births]]
[[Category:American comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:American female comics artists]]
[[Category:American female comics writers]]
[[Category:American people of Rusyn descent]]
[[Category:American women comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:American humorists]]
[[Category:American women humorists]]
[[Category:American comics artists]]
[[Category:American comics artists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Midland High School (Midland, Michigan) alumni]]
[[Category:People from Midland, Michigan]]
[[Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners]]
[[Category:Reuben Award winners]]
[[Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Dayton, Ohio]]