A. E. Hayward

His father and grandfather were painters, and he became an accomplished watercolorist himself, exhibiting his impressionist landscapes (usually of mountains, and some quite abstract) to critical praise at New York's Fifteen Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (where he studied), and many cities of the United States and beyond.

[9] In addition to his painting, Hayward worked as a newspaper writer of humorous human interest fare, wrote poetry, and lectured at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, but found his greatest fame when he turned to cartooning.

[9][8][10][1][7] Somebody's Stenog first ran on December 16, 1918, preceding (and perhaps in part inspiring)[11] the similarly-themed strips Winnie Winkle (1920) and Tillie the Toiler (1921).

[12][7] Characters included Cam O'Flage's friend Mary Doodle, her boss Sam Smithers, and her rival Kitty Scratch.

[citation needed] Somebody's Stenog was successful enough that Al Capp, shopping Li'l Abner in the mid 1930s, was pressured to instead draw a strip similar to Hayward's.