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The definitive biography of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation. [He] defied army censors, German artillery, and Patton's pledge to "throw his ass in jail" to deliver his wildly popular cartoon, "Up Front," to the pages of Stars and Stripes.--From publisher description.
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Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front by Todd DePastino

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Little remembered today, but one of the biggest celebrities coming out of WWII because of his groundbreaking cartoons, Bill Mauldin deserves to be remembered. In many ways, his earnest and honest yet still humorous takes on the life of the front line soldier helped generate the modern political cartoon and his influence can be seen even in today's grapic novels. A hero to every GI suffering the indignities of warfare and army idiocy, his postwar career was uneven until settling in to being an award winning political cartoonist as well as war hoping journalist. While the book is a good and informative read, it suffers from lacking some depth....too brief a take on a fascinating subject. A website where some of his work can be appreciated: http://oddlots.digitalspace.net/upfront/upfront.html ( )
  KurtWombat | Sep 15, 2019 |
The first biography of Bill Mauldin, who was a young (22) soldier in World War II when the cartoons he was contributing to "Yank" and "Stars and Stripes" began attracting notice from soldiers throughout Europe, the top brass (including Patton, who tried unsuccessfully to have his cartoons banned) and the American public who till now had been shown only a sanitized and glorified view of the war. His "Willie and Joe", two dogface infantrymen who were war-weary, resigned to their lot and the inequities thrust upon them by the brass, brought the true face of the American soldier to his readers, and provided an outlet for the common soldiers' frustrations and an anchor which bound them in solidarity. After the war, Mauldin seemed unable to find an outlet for his talents until he developed into a very good editorial cartoonist, winning his second Pulitzer and indeed working for Joseph Pulitzer for several years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His personal life was sometimes troubled, his feisty independence and periodic drinking bouts for a time causing his family to become estranged from him. He died in a nursing home in 2003, suffering from Alzheimer's and barely able to understand why hundreds of WWII veterans were coming to his room to tell him what his cartoons meant to them some sixty years ago. I've loved Mauldin's WWII cartoons for many years, and it amazed me that such weary and mature insight could come from a 22-year-old who looked 16. ( )
1 vote burnit99 | Apr 19, 2012 |
Outstanding, readable, reliable biography who for many now personifies World War II. ( )
  carterchristian1 | Sep 4, 2010 |
Mauldin, the author of the wildly popular “Willie and Joe” cartoons in WWII, was a wild New Mexico boy with little education, a lot of talent, and plenty of drive. Dead broke, he joined the National Guard for rent money, and was shipped to North Africa, then Italy, where he worked for the 45th Division’s newspaper and covered the grinding war up the boot from the point of view of the infantry. After the war he was a political cartoonist, editorialist, and favorite on the veterans’ circuit. A lifelong distrust of authority and penchant for puncturing inflated egos led to noisy confrontations with George Patton, who wanted him arrested, and many other notables. In the Sixties, he was at first a supporter of the Vietnam War, then turned determinedly against it. This first biography of the two-time Pulitzer winner does not flinch from Mauldin’s tumultuous personal life, marked by three wives and serious alcohol use, but concentrates on his drawing and writing career. Illustrated with ninety of Mauldin’s drawings. A lively and thoroughly readable account of an American original. DePastino is a college teacher, author of Citizen Hobo , and editor of Willie and Joe and Jack London’s The Road. ( )
  edlib | Dec 11, 2007 |
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The definitive biography of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation. [He] defied army censors, German artillery, and Patton's pledge to "throw his ass in jail" to deliver his wildly popular cartoon, "Up Front," to the pages of Stars and Stripes.--From publisher description.

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W.W. Norton

2 editions of this book were published by W.W. Norton.

Editions: 0393061833, 0393334880

 

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