THEODORE SEUSS GEISEL (American, 1904-1991). The Tiller of the Soil, PM newspaper editorial cartoon illustration, August...

Description

THEODORE SEUSS GEISEL (American, 1904-1991)
The Tiller of the Soil, PM newspaper editorial cartoon illustration, August 3, 1942
Ink on paper
20 x 19 in.
Signed lower right

This piece has been framed with the printed PM page displayed (under glass) on the back side of the frame.

Theodore Seuss Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss, always had a strong liberal streak in his children's books, and they find their most clear distillation in the editorial cartoons that he did for the New York newspaper, PM, during the 1940s. The book, Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodore Seuss Geissel by Richard H. Minear, showcases the 400 cartoons that Dr. Seuss did for PM.

Dr. Seuss began working as editorial cartoonist for PM from 1941 to January 1943, and at that time he created some of the best editorial cartoons in the U.S. Art Spiegelman wrote in the introduction of the book: "These cartoons rail against isolationism, racism, and ant-Semitism with a conviction and fervor lacking in most other American editorial pages of the period. These are virtually the only editorial cartoons outside the communist and black press that decried the military's Jim Crow policies and Charles Lindbergh's anti-Semitism. Dr. Seuss said that he 'had no great causes or interest in social issues until Hitler,' and explained that 'PM was against people who pushed other people around. I liked that.' More of a humanist than an ideologue- one of those Groucho rather than Karl Marxists- Dr. Seuss made these drawings with the fire of honest indignation and anger that fuels all real political art. If they have a flaw, it's an absolutely endearing one: they're funny."

More information about Geisel, Theodor Seuss. See also: Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Seuss, Seuss Geisel, Theodor Artist.

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