“Cheeses Greisd!” ....Ludwig Bemelmans (1898–1962)

In his autobiographical stories, Ludwig Bemelmans often disguises New York’s Ritz-Carlton as a series of fictitious hotels in whose kitchens and banquet halls he adroitly caricatures guests and coworkers. Although The Best of Times is characterized by Bemelmans’ usual sense of the ludicrous, it also portrays a hungry and despondent Europe harrowed by the unprecedented cruelty of World War II.