Marjorie Henderson Buell (née Marjorie Lyman Henderson, December 11, 1904 – May 30, 1993) was an American cartoonist who worked under the pen name Marge. She was best known as the creator of Little Lulu.

Early life

Marjorie Lyman Henderson was born in 1904 in Philadelphia to Horace Lyman Henderson and Bertha Brown Henderson. She and her two sisters grew up on a farm outside Malvern. At the age of 8 she began selling her work to friends. Buell's son Larry is a professor of American Literature at Harvard, and her son Fred is a professor of English at Queens College.

Legacy

The nonprofit organization Friends of Lulu (1994–2011) was named after Little Lulu — the organization, which was dedicated to promoting the readership of comic books by women and the participation of women in the comic book industry, chose its name based on the repeated trope of Little Lulu trying to break into the boys' clubhouse, where girls aren't allowed. In 2000, Marge was inducted into Friends of Lulu's Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame.

In July 2006, Buell's family donated the "Marge Papers" to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University. The papers include a collection of fan mail, comic books, scrapbooks of high points in Lulu's history and a complete set of the newspaper cartoons.

In 2005, Heritage Auctions sold the original art to the first Little Lulu panel for $9,200. In recent years, Buell's original art from Little Lulu panels regularly bring between $2,000-$3,000 at auction.

References

Sources

  • Papers, 1856-1994. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.