Spring Luncheon: Todd DePastino, "Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front" May 8, 2008

A long series of officers had tried and failed to quell the rogue cartoonist. His infantrymen were covered in mud, unshaven, and resentful toward officers’ privileges – a far cry from the wholesome image of the American fighting boy promoted by the War Department. Worst of all, his cartoons had become wildly popular among frontline soldiers. At last, General Patton himself summoned the 23 year old cartoonist to his office. It was time for “the Battle of Mauldin.”

On Thursday, May 8, 2008, author Todd DePastino will appear at the Pritzker Military Library Spring Member/Guest Luncheon to discuss his new biography, Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, in an interview with John Callaway. The interview, at 12:30 p.m., is free and open to the public; $55 per person includes the reception (11:30 a.m.), lunch (12:00 p.m.), and a signed copy of the book. The interview will be webcast live and recorded for later broadcast on WYCC Channel 20.

Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front has received strong reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and several other newspapers across the country. It is the first full-length biography of one of the most important voices in American war reporting. Mauldin’s cartoons appeared in European editions of Stars and Stripes from 1943-45, and were syndicated back home. In an era of wholesale press censorship, his depictions of infantry life were revolutionary, with a remarkable eye for artistic detail and an unflinchingly satirical outlook toward black markets, military bureaucracy, and self-inflated officers. Although the showdown with Patton threatened to spell the end of his career, a subsequent order direct from General Eisenhower banned officers from interfering with “Mauldin’s cartoons” and other “controversial materials” in the army newspaper.

Bill Mauldin won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for “distinguished service as a cartoonist”, and another in 1959 for a cartoon about Boris Pasternak and Soviet repression of art. His post-war career included more than twenty-eight years at the Chicago Sun-Times, which published his acclaimed drawing of the Lincoln Memorial weeping after the assassination of President Kennedy. He also covered the Vietnam War, and was a founding member of the groundbreaking Chicago Journalism Review, an early media watchdog whose ranks included Mike Royko and Studs Terkel.

Todd DePastino is the author of Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America and editor of the new Mauldin collection Willie & Joe: The WWII Years, from Fantagraphics Press, which will also be available for sale at the event. He teaches at Waynesburg College.

Reservations are required for the luncheon. There is a limited amount of free seating for the interview, which does not require attendance at the luncheon, but reservations are strongly recommended. Call 312.587.0234 or email events@pritzkermilitarylibrary.net.

Official Website: http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events