Synopses & Reviews
'The real war,' said Walt Whitman, 'will never get in the books.' During World War II, the truest glimpse most Americans got of the 'real war' came through the flashing black lines of twenty-two-year-old infantry sergeant Bill Mauldin. Week after week, Mauldin 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. 'Up Front' featured the wise-cracking Willie and Joe, whose stooped shoulders, mud-soaked uniforms, and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect bore eloquent witness to the world of combat and the men who lived'"and died'"in it. This taut, lushly illustrated biography'"the first of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Mauldin'"is illustrated with more than ninety classic Mauldin cartoons and rare photographs. It traces the improbable career and tumultuous private life of a charismatic genius who rose to fame on his motto: 'If it"s big, hit it.'
Review
"Vibrant, moving, and full of wonderful cartoons, DePastino's book breathes life into a fascinating American genius." Chris Patsilelis
Review
"DePastino's bio serves not only as an appreciation of Mauldin's artistry but also as a complex portrait of an iconoclast who started out as the Greatest Generation's court jester but grew to become its conscience." Philadelphia Inquirer
Synopsis
A self-described "desert rat" who rocketed to fame at the age of twenty-two, Bill Mauldin used flashing black brush lines and sardonic captions to capture the world of the American combat soldier in World War II. His cartoon dogfaces, Willie and Joe, appeared in and hundreds of newspapers back home, bearing grim witness to life in the foxhole. We've never viewed war in the same way since. This lushly illustrated biography draws on private papers, correspondence, and thousands of original drawings to render a full portrait of a complex and quintessentially American genius.
Synopsis
A self-described desert rat who rocketed to fame at the age of twenty-two, Bill Mauldin used flashing black brush lines and sardonic captions to capture the world of the American combat soldier in World War II. His cartoon dogfaces, Willie and Joe, appeared in Stars and Stripes and hundreds of newspapers back home, bearing grim witness to life in the foxhole. We've never viewed war in the same way since. This lushly illustrated biography draws on private papers, correspondence, and thousands of original drawings to render a full portrait of a complex and quintessentially American genius.
Synopsis
'A deeply felt, vivacious and wonderfully illustrated biography.' '"Clancy Sigal, Los Angeles Times Book ReviewA self-described 'desert rat' who rocketed to fame at the age of twenty-two, Bill Mauldin used flashing black brush lines and sardonic captions to capture the world of the American combat soldier in World War II. His cartoon dogfaces, Willie and Joe, appeared in
Stars and Stripesand hundreds of newspapers back home, bearing grim witness to life in the foxhole. We"ve never viewed war in the same way since. This lushly illustrated biography draws on private papers, correspondence, and thousands of original drawings to render a full portrait of a complex and quintessentially American genius.
Synopsis
"A deeply felt, vivacious and wonderfully illustrated biography." --Clancy Sigal,
Synopsis
The definitive biography of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation.
About the Author
Todd DePastino is the author of Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America and Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, and the editor of the cartoon collections Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Willie & Joe: Back Home. He teaches history and writes and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.