I was always aware of what a fantastic cartoonist Mauldin was, but to be honest my knowledge of him ceased with the end of World War II and his 'Willie and Joe' cartoons, so I was completely unaware (oh.let's call it ignorant) of what a feisty little bastard he continued to be after the war, how his cartoons helped fight discrimination, and government corruption, and so much more.Īfter reading this book I had a good deal more respect for Maudlin and his methodology of jumping onto fires to see if he could withstand the heat. It traces the improbable career and tumultuous private life of a charismatic genius who rose to fame on his motto: “If it’s big, hit it.” This taut, lushly illustrated biography―the first of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Mauldin―is illustrated with more than ninety classic Mauldin cartoons and rare photographs. “Up Front” featured the wise-cracking Willie and Joe, whose stooped shoulders, mud-soaked uniforms, and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect bore eloquent witness to the world of combat and the men who lived―and died―in it. Week after week, Mauldin defied army censors, German artillery, and Patton’s pledge to “throw his ass in jail” to deliver his wildly popular cartoon, “Up Front,” to the pages of Stars and Stripes.

“The real war,” said Walt Whitman, “will never get in the books.” During World War II, the truest glimpse most Americans got of the “real war” came through the flashing black lines of twenty-two-year-old infantry sergeant Bill Mauldin.

The definitive biography of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation.

Up Front by Bill Mauldin