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Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front

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I have been truly blessed to have gotten an advanced copy of this work and have been more pleased with it than any other biography I have ever read. Having been a student of Bill Mauldin's life and work, I thought I would learn little new from this book. I'm humbled when I say I now know how little I really knew about the subject before I started reading this book.
Most people interested in WW2 have seen Bill Mauldin's work. Most have no idea of the truly American story that became William Mauldin's life. A sickly child of a family that was poor even by depression-era standards, he simply didn't take 'no' for an answer from anyone.
Todd DePastino set out to write the definitive work on Mauldin's life, a book which like most good histories, couldn't have been written until his passing. It pulls no punches with the reality. Mauldin was an driven man, almost to the point of madness, yet had to prove himself every moment of his life. Re-inventing himself over and over again, his life was a roller coaster of poverty and riches, fame and oblivion. At end of his life, ripped by the pain and the disease which had taken his mind, the GI's who loved his work rallied to his side. There could never have been a more fitting tribute than the hundreds of aging warriors who came to Mauldin in his final hours to pay their respects.
For those who are mostly interested in his wartime experiences, you must realize this is a work about his entire life. While WW2 factored into his life prominently, it wasn't all that Bill Maudlin did. It paints a sometimes humorous, often tragic, and in the end a warm story about a nation he'd thought had forgotten him but showed their love when he needed it most.
Talking with almost everyone who ever knew Mauldin, DePastino has painted a lavish portrait of man few people could ever have really understood. Going back to his roots, we learn of Mauldin's frighteningly Dickensian upbringing and amazing determination to become a cartoonist. This in a world where only "real" work had value, rarely even then. Clawing his way to his goal was sidetracked by the upcoming war. What seemed to be a derailment of his career turned out to be the springboard, launching himself into events he barely controlled. Yet, controlled it, he did. The flame of his popularity flickered through his life after he stepped out uniform. Along the way, he left more than a few people by the wayside.
Truly, a man haunted by his dreams, his past and a future he so desperately wanted yet never seemed to achieve makes for a story that readers will never forget. DePastino does true justice, spending an amazing amount of time with his research. Anyone who thinks they know the Mauldin story will come away with many new insights. This book is valuable in so many ways and will for years to come be one of the definitive works to spotlight the true nature of ambition, fame, and what it really is to both an artist and a real man.

The most famous cartoonist of World War Two was Bill Mauldin. Everyone knew his cartoons of the disheveled, ill-shaven GIs Willie and Joe, but not everyone liked them. The GIs themselves were big fans. They knew that Mauldin, even in the simple medium of newspaper comics, was getting their story right. In _Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front_ (Norton), Todd DePastino, who has previously edited a book of Willie and Joe cartoons, has given us what is, surprisingly, the first full length biography of the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. The book fittingly contains dozens of Mauldin's drawings, and not all from the war years. Like many veterans, Mauldin may have had the high point of his life during the war, but his second Pulitzer came in 1958, and it's not even for his most famous post-war cartoon. A distinctly American genius, Mauldin deserved a sympathetic and detailed biography, and that is just what DePastino has given us.

Mauldin really was a genius with a pencil or pen. He was making detailed drawings before he could talk. He got some formal training, but he could not make cartoons pay, and unemployment was bad enough in 1940 that he joined the Arizona National Guard's 45th Infantry Division. His cartoons, featured in the division newspaper, were humorous takes on the sort of things other soldier cartoonists were doing, showing dumb privates peeling potatoes and dumb officers mouthing off criticisms. After he went through battle in Sicily and Italy, however, the cartoons changed, showing generally competent soldiers, doing a bloody, muddy, dangerous, and unappreciated job. The sympathetic accuracy of the portraits was what made them beloved by the dogfaces that recognized themselves in the depictions and the situations. The GIs loved Mauldin's cartoons; the officers were less than unanimous in their admiration. General Patton hated them, and early in Mauldin's army career, he tried pulling rank, telling Mauldin's commander "Get rid of Mauldin and his cartoons". It was one battle Patton lost. Mauldin's cartoons were syndicated stateside. He also began a writing career that was to prove to be successful, starting with _Up Front_, a bestselling account of the Italian campaign. He became a popular editorial cartoonist. His cartoons took down segregationists, the KKK, and the anti-Communist hysteria of Joe McCarthy. He got himself an FBI file for his efforts. His most famous postwar cartoon was the one of the statue of Lincoln from the Memorial, head in hands after the assassination of Kennedy. Mauldin remained a reporter, taking assignments in Vietnam, Israel, and even the Persian Gulf for our first war there. He acted briefly in the movies. He died of dementia, complicated by alcohol, and a severe scalding accident in 2003.

DePastino's wonderful and moving book rightly concentrates on the war years, but details plenty of the post-war career. Mauldin was self-critical enough to write, "I never quite could shake off the guilt feeling that I had made something good out of the war." He didn't like the Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion types who he felt glorified war, and he couldn't stand going to the memorials which brought back gruesome memories. But he died well loved by the soldiers who had loved him for depicting them realistically. In his nursing home, he didn't always recognize family that came to see him, and his marriages and career became blanks. But when the veterans came, just guys who had loved seeing themselves in his work, he seemed to know them. Years before, when Tom Brokaw put to him that the real Willies and Joes were America's "Greatest Generation," Mauldin wasn't having any of it. He replied that "they were human beings, they had their weaknesses and their flaws and their good sides and bad sides. The one thing they had in common was that they were a little too young to die." It was the realistic sort of respect his cartoons had always shown.

Bill Maudlin achieved fame as the Army cartoonist who portrayed the privates with all the dirt and grit. He was young (early 20's) in World War II, a veteran of the fighting and a dragon-slayer of the Army hierarchy (which drew the ire of Patton). He won the first of two Pulitzer Prizes for his sympathtic drawings of Willie and Joe. It was a hell of a first act that he would never repeat. From a dysfuctional family, he would be a problem drinker with three marriages who would never found a stage as big as World War II again. The writing is good with ample samples of his cartoons. An interesting story of an interesting man.

This book depicts the spectacular tail of one of the millions of young men who grew up during the depression, and turned into men overseas fighting in WWII. The story of Bill Mauldin is told at a very personal level in this book through the use of displaying his cartoons at specific points in the story representing what he personally went through at that time. That is unless, you bought the kindle version. For example, when in Italy, the fighting between the Axis and Allies was so hand-to-hand, that enemies unknowingly shared the same foxholes at night, and then it depicts a cartoon Mauldin wrote showing the 2 soldiers from each side face to face near a foxhole. Except if you have the kindle version, you get a nice note saying something along the lines of "images have been omitted due to permissive issues" This is a book about a cartoonist, that refers constantly to visual aids that aren't there. So in other words, you pay for a book, and miss out on critical ideas trying to be expressed simply because lawyers couldn't make an agreement before the book was released on Kindle. It's a good book, but don't buy it on Kindle.

BILL MAULDIN: A LIFE UP FRONT begins with thousands of WWII veterans coming to see Bill at a nursing home in California where he is suffering from Alzheimer's. He stares off into space until one of them pins a medal on him; then his eyes light up.

Author DePastino then shows us how Bill moved from a hell-raising kid living on a mountain in New Mexico to STARS AND STRIPES cartoonist and premier morale booster of World War II. DePastino shows us Mauldin's undaunted will to succeed. Prior to WWII, he labored at his craft, sending out thousands of cartoons with little chance he would ever get anything published. He borrowed money from his grandmother to go to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. We also see his mischievous side. He never did graduate from high school, thanks to a prank he pulled in a science class. He lit a cigarette and put it in the mouth of the class skeleton, too much for the teacher to overlook when he relit it and took a few drags.

Prior to WWII, Bill joined the Arizona National Guard. Four days later the guard was mobilized into the United States Army. He began his cartoonist career working part-time for the 45th Division News, going full-time when it was sent overseas. It was the hell-raiser kid who appealed to the soldiers. Bill was a sergeant in the Infantry before he was a cartoonist. There's a cartoon of Bill's characters Willie and Joe throwing tomatoes at the head of an officer as their unit enters a liberated city. This was one of the cartoons that would arouse the wrath of General George S. Patton, who wanted Bill fired. Thankfully other generals, Mark Clark among them, liked Bill's work enough to ask for signed originals.

When he returned from the war, Bill eventually went to work for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, then the Chicago Sun-Times
as a political cartoonist where he took on such issues as segregation in the South and the House Un-American Activities Committee. His cartoon of Lincoln holding his head in his hands after the Kennedy assassination would become one of the most famous of the 20th Century. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice.

The book also examines Bill's personal life in elaborate detail. He was married three times, his second wife dying in a car accident after a massive stroke. There's an especially touching anecdote about how he reconciled with his first wife after fifty years apart.

As a writer I found Bill's work regimen especially impressive. For one thing he used a Polaroid camera to take pictures of himself in various poses. "Capturing precisely the curl of an arm, the twist of a face, or the wrinkles in an overcoat was an ongoing obsession." The man never stopped trying to get better, and should be remembered as an authentic American hero. Like Snoopy, let's all quaff a root beer with Bill Mauldin on Veteran's Day.

Bill Mauldin wrote several great books on his own life including "The Brass Ring" in 1972. This new, and only, biography, by Todd DePastino, is as good a book, or not better, than I thought it would be when I ordered it.

This excellent biography covers Mauldin's entire public and private lives. Bill was born in 1921 and passed away in 2003. The touching last weeks of his life are as inspiring as anything written in the entire book.

Mauldin' most popular book of war time cartoons, "UP FRONT", was published in 1944. It won him instant fame and a Pulitzer Prize for his creation of the now legendary G.I. Wilie and Joe cartoon drawings, on and for army dogfaces, that touched the hearts and souls of our fighting men and women at war, and those and at home.

But, to me, the best part of DePastino's new biography deals with Mauldin's life and career after Bill Mauldin, Joe, and Willie came home from The War. The post WW II period of Bill's career has somehow been neglected before this great book was written. In fact, Mauldin's editorial cartoons, with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and then with the Chicago Sun-Times, brought him another Pulitzer Prize in 1958. Readers will be interested in seeing that cartoon, as well as many of his war, and post war efforts.

In 1965 my father bought an orignal autographed Willie framed canvas cartoon . I now have it. I have told my daughters that the Mauldin drawing is theirs, for the memories of their grandfather and me. This book just makes my fondness for Bill Mauldin even greater. I am going to get copies of this book for my daughters.

Thanks, Mr. DePastino for a great biography on Bill Mauldin.

What would certain aspects of World War II have meant without Bill Mauldin's keen-eyed observances translated onto the page? Just ask the many veterans who expressed their admiration for him as he lay dying a few years ago... Mauldin was their hero, a man of unique talent who saw the war through a perspective shared by thousands of others and reflected in his work.

Indeed, Todd DePastino's absorbing new book on "Bill", starts out with these tributes, then takes the reader on the roller coaster ride of his life. Growing up in hardscrabble New Mexico could very well have been preparation enough for a man whose hard knocks knew no bounds. But success came early to Bill as a young adult and the author recreates a fine narrative as he traces his years in service around Europe...primarily in Italy and France. Most notable throughout the war was his frequent run-ins with superiors, some of whom disliked his work, including General Patton. Bill's confrontational meeting with Patton is a high point of the first half of the book.

After the war, Bill became a writer as he continued to contribute cartoons to various newspapers throughout his adult life. He was also briefly involved in the film industry, acting in a movie with fellow veteran Audie Murphy and running once for Congress from New York State. Yet his personal life comes into focus through DePastino's revelations...his multiple marriages and heavy use of alcohol suggest a man whose demons were never far from the surface. The author captures this in just the right light, it seems. Bill's cartoons, though, (dozens of which are represented here) are central to the book and give a terrific reflection of a cartoonist who interpreted what he saw in a way the common soldier could understand. This is what gave Bill his certain signature, and although they are cartoons "of a time", they nonetheless give a clear picture of life in the theatre of war.

"Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front" is a sincere and unambiguous book about one of the heroes of the Second World War. Todd DePastino has reminded us about how important Bill Mauldin was to the war effort and how his personal artistic style helped to keep morale high during a defining time in our nation's history.

Bill Mauldin and the Common Soldier

American Civil War readers often encounter Walt Whitman's statement, "The real war will never get in the books." That statement is now assumed to be true of all American Wars. Todd DePastino shows how cartoonist Bill Mauldin, whose subject was the American combat soldier during World War II, did get the real war into the books. Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front is authoritative but not exhaustive biography. DiPastino's focus is on the creative work of Mauldin. There are many more stories that could be told

Mauldin grew up during the Great Depression in the mountainous region of New Mexico. Raised by eccentric parents, Mauldin's family was very poor. Taking advantage of very limited resources such as his high school's ROTC-style club, student newspaper and yearbook, as well as several very fine art teachers, Mauldin managed to gain admission and pay the tuition at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts for one year. To establish an income he joined the newly mobilized 45th Infantry Division of the Arizona National Guard and then became the 45th Division News's cartoonist.

Deployed to North Africa in 1943, Mauldin participated in the invasions of Sicily and Italy; later he was assigned to France. In 1944, while on staff at the army's newspaper Stars and Stripes, Mauldin created unique characters that irritated the army brass, even George Patton. The weary, disheveled, officer-abusing enlisted men Willie and Joe became soldiers' heroes as the cartoon characters uttered thoughts that could not be spoken to an officer.

After the war and in the course of his life, Mauldin published several bestselling cartoon collections, two autobiographies, acted in Hollywood, ran unsuccessfully for Congress and received his career with two Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning. Thoroughly researched with the immense cooperation of Mauldin's family and friends, DePastino's biography is an introduction to an American who set standards for illustration and content that are stilled used today. His impact on his profession is immense. Charles Schultz, leader of a machine gun squad in Europe and creator of the cartoon Peanuts, recognized Mauldin as a hero of both WWII infantrymen and cartoonists.

DiPastino's focus is on Mauldin's career and dwells on family issues as they relate to his journalism. The author's thorough research supports his frankness in describing the women, alcohol, and personal tensions in Mauldin's post WWII career. Containing more than ninety cartoons and photographs, DiPastino's work sets the reader within Mauldin's historical era. Accessible in style, DiPastino's work moves thoroughly but not tediously through WW II and post-war veteran issues, American journalism and politics, and the changes in Mauldin's drawing techniques. Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front is recommended for advanced placement high school students and up. Anyone who enjoys reading a biography of a soldier and artist whom the odds of success were set firmly against, who at times created his own luck and at other times had unexplainable good fortune, who was born with a gift and did not squander it will be satisfied with DiPastio's work.

This is the best biography I've ever read. Mr. Depastino needs to write more!

I've probably seen almost every cartoon published by Mauldin starting from the Louisiana Manuevers to his work on Stars and Stripes but now I know more about the life of the man and the circumstances around his artwork. I knew that Mauldin's life was hard but I had no idea HOW hard. I knew Mauldin had some formal art training but I was clueless that it had been at Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, which was then THE place to go if you were a serious cartoonist. I knew Mauldin was serious about his work but I didn't know he raided coffins (unused ones) for zinc for engravings.

Mauldin's meteoric rise to fame and overnight riches from his work with Stars and Stripes are also discussed in the book, an aspect I never knew about.

DePastino looks at Bill's postwar life, his brief flirtation with the left and his efforts to reinvent himself. From reading the book you get the impression that Bill Mauldin was less about causes than he was anti-authoritarian, an attitude no doubt shaped by his life in the Army.

Bill Mauldin's cartoons are in a class by themselves. The cartoons addressed the absurdity of war but not in a slapstick manner. It was a grim humor gleaned from his fellow Soldiers. Mauldin was in a class by himself as well.