Up Front [Paperback]

Bill Mauldin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1983

Unquestionably the greatest war cartoonist of our time, Bill Mauldin proves that he is also a writer who knows the humor, the unwitting heroism, the dirt, the boredom, and the horrors of war--because he was there. This 50th anniversary edition features introductions by David Halberstam and Charles M. Schulz. Line drawings throughout.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Throughout World War II, cartoonist Bill Mauldin documented the adventures and misadventures of dogfaces Willie and Joe, symbols of the hard-pressed infantry, "the group which gives more and gets less than anybody else." In Up Front, recently reissued as a 50th-anniversary volume, Mauldin joins an absorbing narrative account of just how hellish combat is to a selection of those cartoons. Reading through this powerful book, one sees why Mauldin, in demythologizing the war, was often accused of undoing the efforts of the morale officers and politicians who assured the home front that our boys were having a fine time of it in Europe. No, Mauldin replied through Willie and Joe, our boys are being maimed and killed every day. For his honesty, the troops loved him -- and Mauldin loved them= back. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Mauldin's classic portrait of the World War II combat soldier is being reissued in this facsimile edition to coincide with the 50th anniversary of V-E Day on April 29. Though Mauldin was known for his cartoons of dogfaces "Willie" and "Joe," reviewers praised his prose, with the New York Times calling Up Front a "vigorous, brash, youthful but excellent book."
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (Mm) (March 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553231049
• ISBN-13: 978-0553231045
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #712,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In Memory of Our Fallen and Our Gold Star Mothers, May 26, 2008

By 

Edwin C. Pauzer (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Up Front (Hardcover)

It's a gift, the ability to draw, to have perspective, to create, to be able to portray human misery as humor, for a reader to see the image and words and turn to laughter. Bill Mauldin had this gift that gained prominence in a time of war where talents rise to their greatest heights or sink to their lowest depths.

Truth is portrayed in humor or the humor isn't funny. Sergeant Bill Mauldin, an infantryman, barely twenty, and serving in Italy picks up a pencil and anything he can draw on, and begins to sketch two characters named Willy and Joe, two, brave, disheveled, irreverent, likeable and crusty infantry soldiers that give meaning to the names infantrymen were referred to as: ground-pounders, dogfaces, legs, and grunts. Mauldin portrays their grim and grimy existence with fatalistic pictures and captions--or grunts. One called "Breakfast in Bed" finds one of them waking up under a cow's udders, or the one where both are in a rain-filled foxhole and Willie touches Joe's shoulder saying, "Joe, yesterday ya saved my life an' I swore I'd pay ya back. Here's my last pair o' dry socks," or with rain pelting down on a scrawny dog facing the opening of their make-shift shelter, one of them says: "Let'im in. I wanna see a critter I kin feel sorry fer." My all-time favorite is a drunk German staggering toward a hidden Willie and Joe, holding a bottle of schnapps, unaware that he is wandering into American lines: "Don't startle `im, Joe. It's almost full."

These cartoons show the comradeship that soldiers developed for each other that would last a lifetime. Each man knew each other better than his own family or spouse ever would, and they could see the good and the bad in everything. They would carry a wounded lieutenant back to safety because he wasn't a "salutin' demon," or curse the Germans as vile, evil Nazis for scuttling a large keg of cognac before their retreat. These soldiers were miserable without being despondent. They were scared without being cowardly. They complained about their predicaments, but carried out their mission as American soldiers always do--attacking silently. The viewer cannot help but feeling empathy and admiration for soldiers who sometimes spent thirty months "in the line."

Mauldin goes further than just making us laugh at the miserable existence of two men trying to stay alive. His real success is that his humor defines the very best and most humane in the human character when it is engaged in its most destructive behavior. It is also timeless. Seventy years later, civilians and servicemen can still see the gallows humor in Willie and Joe's death-defying predicaments.

"Up Front" is Mauldin's account, of what he was doing when he created a particular drawing, why he made sure to include medics, engineers, chaplains, and even Tommies. The writing is matter of fact, well-written, and interesting, but without fascination. That was saved for the cartoons. The author is explaining each one in his text. It's the drawings and the captions that make this book a winner and a conversation piece.

Bill Mauldin died January 22, 2003. Willie and Joe occupying a foxhole filled with water and several cubic feet of complaints, live on.

Think about this the next time you put on a pair of dry socks, and marvel at the simple pleasure of just how good they feel.

May 26, 2008 Memorial Day (observed)

In Memory of the Fallen and all our Gold Star Mothers--especially today.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best ever..., March 24, 2001

By 

Jordan M. Poss (Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Up Front (Hardcover)

This book is, without a doubt, the greatest book on the World War II infantryman ever written. Why? Because it was written by and infantryman, for infantrymen. Sgt. Bill Mauldin claims on the first page that his business is drawing, not writing, and that his text is only there to back up the cartoons. However, the text is some of the most endearing, personal, and excellent works on WWII ever. Mauldin brings the war down from the lofty views of Generals and reporters to the personal level, to the point of giving you a basic narration of the average day in the life of an infantryman. The cartoons, naturally, are the main power behind the book, and they are, even to this day, still hilarious. Hilarious, but at the same time showing you the gripes and hardships of the average GI during the war. If you want to experience World War II from the GI's perspective, read this book!

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book Ever Written on World War Two, November 26, 2003

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Up Front (Hardcover)

I was first introduced to Bill Mauldin by my late father who gave me his battered copy of "Up Front" that was printed in 1945. He told me when he gave it to me that it was his favorite book growing up (he was age 10-15 during World War Two) and that I should read it to better understand the human side of war. He couldn't have been more correct. I came to understand that even when the cause is noble, and the enemy leadership is evil, that war is a horrible thing, even when it is necessary.

Bill Mauldin, who died recently, was a national treasure. His characters Willy and Joe (themselves a national treasure) form the crux of his cartoons from that era, and they embodied everyman in the heroes of the war. For his work he eventually won a Pulitzer prize. Mauldin claimed to be more of a cartoonist than a writer, but the writing is, in my opinion, at least the equal of the cartoons. For people who have never been exposed to the human level, front line realities of war, this book is vital for understanding the men who fight for the freedoms we enjoy.

This is a wonderful book, and I wish that every high school student was required to read it when they studied World War Two in Europe. I am so glad to see it back in print. While I cherish the copy that my Dad gave me many years ago it is now very fragile. I am grateful to have a new copy to thumb through on my bookshelf. If you read any one book this year on World War Two, this has to be it. It will make you proud to be an American, and proud of the men who fought for freedom sixty years ago.