Bill Mauldin:

[mahatmakanejeeves]

{edited}

For the young'uns:

Bill Mauldin

Bill Mauldin in Chicago Sun-Times on 23rd November, 1963.

[Wounded Bear]

1. One of the great cartoonist/journalists of WWII...

[mobeau69]

2. I have an early printing hard back copy of "Up Front".

One of my treasures.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Yeah, that's a keeper...

great read, and of course all of the cartoons.

[MineralMan]

6. So do I. It's one of my treasures.

I took it from my parents' bookcase when they were clearing out some stuff.

[mobeau69]

8. I was fascinated with that book as a kid in the fifties trying to understand the war and all.

Dad would never talk about his time in N Africa and Europe much. Some of the guys that never shipped out were the only ones who liked to talk about it.

BTW, I also have the complete Sun Times that has Mauldin’s Lincoln. Never thought it could get worse than ‘63. Wrong!

Have a good holiday, MM.

[MineralMan]

9. Like you, I looked through that book again and again.

My father didn't talk about the war, either, so I had to learn about it from books. Decades later, he would tell some stories about the war, but not a lot. It was such a different time. At 19-20 years of age, he was a first pilot in a B-17. One of the very youngest. There are photos of him and his crew, along with photos of he and my mom, who married him just before he shipped out. I was born a week before the Hiroshima bomb, so that gives you an idea of the time period when he was flying bombing missions. If I remember correctly, he flew 13 bombing missions near the end of the war in Europe, including a mission to Ploesti.

After the war in Europe ended, he flew people here and there in the B-17, operating out of North Africa and Italy. Then, about three months after I was born, he flew his B-17 back to the US, via Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Florida, where he was mustered out of the service and took a train to Arizona where my mom and I were waiting for him. From there, they moved to a small town in California where I grew up.

When I was 20, I was in the USAF myself. I carried my father's B-4 bag along all throughout my service as my suitcase, along with the standard blue duffel bag.

[rzemanfl]

10. My father had a copy when I was a kid. n/t

[Aristus]

4. Brilliant cartoonist. Here's one of his blistering Civil Rights Era pieces:

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Brave artist.

Brave soldier.



Great human being.

[Mister Ed]

7. This one is my favorite:

I was a just a young boy during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960's, but I do remember seeing this one while browsing through a copy of "I've Decided I Want My Seat Back".

I remind myself of this whenever my privileged self feels tempted to preach incrementalism to African-Americans, or any other group fighting for their rights.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. I have a print of the Lincoln/Kennedy one.

My dad bought a couple from the Sun-Times in ‘63. He gave them to my brother and me. Mine is framed not sure what my brother did with his.

[mobeau69]

12. No caption was required. That pen and ink captured the emotion of a nation like nothing else could.