Up Front
by Bill Mauldin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bill MauldinForeword: Stephen E. Ambrose
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-12
ISBN: 0393050319
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of Up Front
Book Review: This is WW2-101 !
Summary: 5 Stars
Bill Mauldin's book is definitely World War 2-101;an essential read for anyone interested in the greatest human conflict ever.This book tells it like it really was by a soldier/cartoonist that was there with the guys,in the trenches and fighting and dying along side them.
Bill Mauldin was born in New Mexico in 1921.He joined the army in 1942 and trained as a foot soldier.He was assigned to the 45th Infantry division which had been re-activated in 1940.It's original shoulder patch was a Swatiska in gold with a red background.With Hitler's use of that symbol coming to mean something entirely different the units' patch was changed to the Indian symbol of a gold thunderbird instead.His talents as an artist got him assigned to the 45th Division newspaper and he travelled with the rest of his men through Africa,the hop into Sicily and on across to Italy,having made T-Sgt by then.By the spring of 1944 Bill was cartooning full time for the official newspaper of the entire Army "The Stars and Stripes".His cartoons also got picked up Stateside in syndication and ran in a myriad of newspapers there.Bill eventually got a jeep(which he named Jeannie after his wife) and travelled from the back lines to the front lines and everwhere in between getting ideas for his cartoons.The beauty of his situation,in a sense,was he was one of the guys so he blended in right away and could get as close as anyone to the men and situations he found himself going into.Through all of his experiences came some of the most realistic and heartfelt cartoons that came out of WW2.Some were gritty with very dark overtones and others were light hearted,poking fun at every branch of the services both American and Allied.The main cartoon characters he created to showcase his messages were that of Willie and Joe;Willie of the big nose in his 30s and Joe of the smaller nose in his 20s.As the war wore on,emphasis on "worn",so did his characters;becoming more hunched,tired and dirty looking month by month.Mauldins' cartoomns were a hit back home and more importantly with the guys in the fields.Some of the brass however disapproved,like Patton.He called Mauldin in in March of 1945 for a dressing down but got nowhere as Mauldin to his credit stuck to his guns.As consoloation for that and any other critcism he may have received for his works,later that year he received the coveted Pulitzer prize based on his cartoon of November 8,1944 which is printed on page 21 of the book.
The book itself is a collection of thoughts,a rambling if you will.There are no chapters and the next thought is usually differentiated with an extra large space between the paragraphs.You will learn the seriousness,the absurdities and in the midst of it all the humanity and fighting spirit of the ordinary soldier/man.You will read what a Repple-Depple is,about lying to attention as a patient,the "treat" for completing ones' 50th combat patrol,whether advancing blisters are worse than retreating blisters,and so much more.
Now I have the advantage of owning a copy of the original 1945 book so I can easily compare the two.The original book is maybe a 1/16th of an inch less wider and about 1/4 of an inch less taller than this new reprint version but the jackets are pretty much the same.Under the dust jacket on the outer cover is an embossed Willie and Bill on both ,except the newer edition has them gold embossed instead of the dark green embossing of the original and a two toned cream and green cover as oppposed to the originals' burlap colour.Now I do have a qualm about the newer edition in that some of the cartoons are either a shade too dark or too light.On examination very few seem to match the original volume in every respect.One example is "The Prince and the Pauper" on page 66.The original book shows Joe looking down(with a touch of affection)at a little girl with a pail.Joes' uniform is tattered at the elbows and on the sleeves and there are marked scratches on his helmet.In the new edition little of his bedraggled appearance is evident as the reprint is way too dark eliminating said helmet scratches and tattered sleeves.Another example is the same thing but in reverse this time.The original cartoon on page 145 is darker in the original book while its newer counterpart is lighter.We all know this is a reprint edition but I believe that not reproducing these cartoons FAITHFULLY takes away and degrades Mauldins' conception and the impact they originally created.Coincidentally I will be reviewing in the coming months a collection of all of Mauldins' WW2 cartoons called "Willie and Joe:The WW2 Years",so I will report then on the quality of THEIR repros at that time.
In conclusion while this new edition of "Up Front" does have its' flaws(major or minor depending on your viewpoint),it is still essential reading espcially if you are at all interested in WW2.This is WW2-101,one of the basics that every student therof should have read or read.While Mauldin showed us the "real" war through his cartoons the only equivilent he had on the writing front was Ernie Pyle.Pyle unfortunately never lived through the war(he was killed by a sniper off Okinawa in 1945) while Mauldin came back to a successful career and left us in 2003.
Buy "Up Front"....that's an order solider!
Summary of Up Front
The definitive biography of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation.
"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. 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. "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. 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. 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." 92 illustrationsThroughout 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.
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