Bill Mauldin
Bill Mauldin | |
---|---|
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts | |
Spouses | Norma Jean Humphries
(m. 1942; div. 1946)Natalie Sarah Evans
(m. 1947; died 1971)Christine Lund (m. 1972) |
Children | 7 |
Military service | |
Branch | United States Army |
Rank | Technician Third Grade |
Unit | |
Battles | |
Awards |
William Henry Mauldin (
Early life
Mauldin was born in
World War II
Shortly after returning to Phoenix in 1940, Mauldin enlisted in Company D, 120th Quartermaster Regiment, of the
During July 1943, Mauldin's cartoon work continued when, as a sergeant of the 45th Infantry Division's press corps, he landed with the division in the
Mauldin was not without his detractors. His images—which often parodied the Army's spit-shine and obedience-to-orders-without-question policy—offended some officers. After a Mauldin cartoon ridiculed
In a 1989 interview, Mauldin said, "I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes."[11]
Mauldin's cartoons made him a hero to the common soldier. GIs often credited him with helping them to get through the rigors of the war. His credibility with the troops increased in September 1943, when he was wounded in the shoulder by a German mortar while visiting a machine gun crew near Monte Cassino.[4] By the end of the war, he received the Legion of Merit for his cartoons. Mauldin wanted Willie and Joe to be killed on the last day of combat, but Stars and Stripes dissuaded him.[6]
Postwar activities
In 1945, at the age of 23, Mauldin won a
After the war, Mauldin turned to drawing
In 1956, he ran unsuccessfully for the
I jumped in with both feet and campaigned for seven or eight months. I found myself stumping around up in these rural districts and my own background did hurt there. A farmer knows a farmer when he sees one. So when I was talking about their problems I was a very sincere candidate, but when they would ask me questions that had to do with foreign policy or national policy, obviously I was pretty far to the left of the mainstream up there. Again, I'm an old Truman Democrat, I'm not that far left, but by their lives I was pretty far left.[16]
In 1959, Mauldin won a second Pulitzer Prize, while working at the
In addition to cartooning, Mauldin worked as a
In 1962, Mauldin moved to the Chicago Sun-Times. One of his most famous post-war cartoons was published in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It depicted the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, with his head in his hands.[5][17]
On 7 February 1965, while visiting his son who was serving with the U.S. Army at
In 1969, Mauldin was commissioned by the National Safety Council to illustrate its annual booklet on traffic safety. These pamphlets were regularly issued without copyright, but for this issue the council noted that Mauldin's cartoons were under copyright, although the rest of the pamphlet was not.
In 1985, Mauldin won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.[19] Mauldin remained with the Sun-Times until his retirement in 1991.
He was inducted into the
Death and legacy
Mauldin died on January 22, 2003, from Alzheimer's disease and complications of injuries received in a recent accidental bathtub scalding.[5] He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on January 29, 2003.[22] Married three times, he was survived by seven children. (His daughter Kaja had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2001.)[6]
On March 31, 2010, the United States Post Office released a first-class denomination ($0.44) postage stamp in Mauldin's honor depicting him with Willie & Joe.[23] In June, 2000 Mauldin was inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame.[24]
In 2005, Mauldin was inducted into the Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, by Michael Vance. The Oklahoma Cartoonists Collection, created by Vance, is located in the Toy and Action Figure Museum.
Museum holdings
The 45th Infantry Division Museum, located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, includes a substantial collection of cartoons by Mauldin.[25]
The Pritzker Military Museum & Library includes a substantial collection of cartoons by Mauldin.[26]
Bibliography
- Star Spangled Banter – 1941
- Sicily Sketchbook – 1943
- Mud, Mules, and Mountains – 1944
- News of the 45th (with Don Robinson) – 1944
- Up Front. Norton. 1991. ISBN 9780393030532. – 1945
- This Damn Tree Leaks – 1945
- Back Home. 1947.– 1947
- A Sort of a Saga. William Sloane Associates. 1949.– 1949
- Bill Mauldin's Army. 1962. – 1951
- Bill Mauldin in Korea. W. W. Norton & Company. 1952.– 1952
- Up High with Bill Mauldin – 1956
- What's Got Your Back Up? – 1961
- I've Decided I Want My Seat Back. Harper & Row, Publishers. 1961. – 1965
- Bill of Rights Day Celebration – 1969
- The Brass Ring. 1971. – 1971
- Name Your Poison – 1975
- Mud and Guts. 1978. – 1978
- Let's Declare Ourselves Winners and Get the Hell Out – 1985
In April 2008,
Peanuts
From 1969 to 1998,
Filmography
The films Up Front (1951) and Back at the Front (1952) were based on Mauldin's Willie and Joe characters; however, when Mauldin's suggestions were ignored in favor of making a slapstick comedy, he returned his advising fee; he said he had never seen the result.[5]
Mauldin also appeared as an actor in the 1951 films The Red Badge of Courage and Teresa, and as himself in the 1998 documentary America in the '40s. He also appeared in on-screen interviews in the Thames documentary The World at War.[29]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Bill Mauldin's Early Years, 1938–1942: Bill Mauldin Beyond Willie and Joe: An online tribute drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress – Swann Foundation". The Library of Congress. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
- ^ Mauldin, Bill (1962). What's Got Your Back Up?. New York City: Popular Library. pp. v.
- OCLC 154707341.
- ^ a b c DePastino, Willie & Joe. 2008.
- ^ OCLC 154706849.
- ^ a b c Michaelis, David. "He Drew Great Mud" Archived April 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The New York Times Sunday Book Review. March 2, 2008
- ISBN 978-1-56097-838-1
- ^ Mauldin and DePastino 2008. p. 15
- ^ Stolzer, Rob (December 25, 2017). "Gregor Duncan: Pictures of Life". Hogan's Alley. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
- ISBN 0393050319.
- ^ Lamb, D. "Bill, Willie, and Joe". MHQ – The Quarterly Journal of Military History, vol. 1, issue 4 (summer, 1989), pp. 36–47.
- ^ a b "Editorial Cartooning" Archived December 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
- ^ "Mauldin's 'Willie'". Time. June 18, 1945. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019.
- ^ "Bill Maudlin". Time. July 21, 1961. Archived from the original on January 17, 2008.
- ^ "Bill Mauldin, Cartoonist Who Showed World War II Through G.I. Eyes, Dies at 81". The New York Times. (January 23, 2003). Retrieved September 27, 2016.
- ^ "A Turn in Career, 1950–1958" Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Bill Mauldin: Beyond Willie And Joe, An online tribute drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress – Swann Foundation, 2003
- ^ Mauldin, Bill (1965). I've Decided I Want My Seat Back. New York: Harper & Row. p. 74. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
- ^ "Vietnamese guard was half strength when Reds struck". The New York Times. February 8, 1965. p. 1.
- ^ Arizona State University (January 29, 2009). "Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication". Retrieved November 23, 2016.
- ^ St. Louis Walk of Fame. "St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees". stlouiswalkoffame.org. Archived from the original on October 31, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
- ^ Elder, p. 12
- ^ "Burial Detail: Mauldin, William H". ANC Explorer.
- ^ USPS News Release: 2010 Stamp Program Unveiled – Bill Mauldin (archived link, June 6, 2011)
- ^ Fame, Oklahoma Military Hall of. "Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame". Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
- ^ "45th Infantry Museum". www.45thdivisionmuseum.com. Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
- ^ "Search | Pritzker Military Museum & Library | Chicago". www.pritzkermilitary.org.
- ^ a b "Peanuts by Schulz". Comics.com.
November 11 strips from 1969–70, '76, '79–81, '83, '85–89, '91–93, '96–99
- ^ Gertler, Nat (September 4, 2006). "That Schulz/Mauldin collaboration". The Aaugh Blog.
- IMDb
Further reading
- DePastino, Todd. Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front (WW Norton & Company, 2008).
- Heitzmann, William Ray. "The political cartoon as a teaching device." Teaching Political Science 6.2 (1979): 166-184. https://doi.org/10.1080/00922013.1979.11000158
- McCarthy, Michael P. "Political Cartoons in the History Classroom." History Teacher 11.1 (1977): 29-38. online
- Mauldin, Bill. Bill Mauldin's Army: Bill Mauldin's Greatest World War II Cartoons (Presidio Press, 1983).
External links
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Bill Mauldin Editorial Cartoons Collection at St. Louis Public Library
- Bill Mauldin Editorial Cartoons Collection finding aid at the St. Louis Public Library
- 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City. Has an exhibit of more than 200 original cartoons from Mauldin's years with the division.
- Jean Albano Gallery, representative of Mauldin's cartoons
- "In Memoriam: Bill Mauldin", transcript and RealAudio of NewsHour, Jan. 23, 2003 Archived December 9, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- Bill Mauldin: Beyond Willie And Joe, An online tribute drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress
- Works by or about Bill Mauldin at Internet Archive
- Mauldin cartoons Archived June 20, 2010, at the The American Experience, episode "War Letters" (PBS)
- St. Louis Walk of Fame
- Interview with Todd DePastino on Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, Pritzker Military Museum & Library
- ANC Explorer
- Bill Mauldin collection at The Newberry