GIFT BOOKS IN BRIEF : THE WORLD OF CHAS. ADDAMS, <i> introduction by Wilfrid Sheed (Alfred A. Knopf: $30).</i>

From 1932 until his death in 1988, Charles Addams was one of the key members of the New Yorker’s celebrated cadre of cartoonists. He introduced a strain of black, morbid humor into American cartooning, and influenced the work of B. Kliban, Gahan Wilson, Gary Larson and many other popular artists. Although his subject matter was often macabre, Addams’ humor was never cruel. The bizarre clutch of characters that has come to be known as “The Addams Family” might seem strange to outsiders, but they’re quite happy among themselves, building a working stretching rack, vacationing in an obviously haunted cavern or pouring boiling oil onto a group of holiday carolers. A master of ink-wash technique, Addams rendered his drawings in delicate shades of gray with a subtlety unmatched in contemporary cartooning. This handsome collection of more than 300 cartoons, including 24 color New Yorker covers, is being published in conjunction with an exhibit at the National Academy of Design.