Bill Mauldin's "Back Home"

[Nathan Dodge]

In addition to his legendary "Willie and Joe" cartoons from his experiences in Italy during WWII, Bill Mauldin also wrote several full-length books, my favorite being Back Home. It includes many amusing and enlightening cartoons, but Mauldin also addresses the issues facing the American G.I. returning home from the war. Mauldin discusses the housing shortage, the black market, veterans' groups, as well as his own rather ambivalent view on his own rise to fame and fortune. I read this book every year or so and it never fails to teach me something new about the era. Anyone else ever read this book? Probably one of the best (and easily obtainable) books on the subject of post-war America.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Today on my blog, I pay tribute to Bill Mauldin.

 

[p51]

I have been collecting Mauldin stuff for over ten years now, have written extensively on his life and work and have one of the most complete collections of his work and publications in private hands. I have been on "Mail Call" on History Channel on the subject in 2005 and have advised libraries, collections on the subject of WW2 cartoonists.
PM me if interested, I can send you a link to a place where I store my PDF file of my first magazine article I did on the subject which talks about all his books... I can always field general questions on Mauldin stuff.
FYI, I also belong to the only WW2 living history group ever to get Mauldin's personal endorsement (in 1995). The Friends of Willie and Joe are out of the Pacific NW. A few years back, we re-created one of Bill's more ironic cartoons, maybe you'll enjoy this, along with the original:

There’s a new Mauldin WW2 cartoon collection out there now, edited by the same guy who just wrote the recent biography of Mauldin. It's a two-book box set (hardbound, no less). The second volume is the stuff Mauldin drew on the mainland after he got to the ETO, mostly stuff anyone has seen before. However, the first volume has stuff he did before the war and what I'm pretty sure is every cartoon he got into print before he went to the continent. I thought I'd seen it all, but just thumbing through both books, I see LOTs of cartoons I'd never even heard of before! Forget, "Bill Mauldin's Army," THIS is the set you want if you like Mauldin's WW2 work!
The cheapest place I've seen it is on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Willie-Joe-Years-Bil...d=2WHSO88P0TKH4
The best thing is Fantagraphics is planning a series of these, all the way to when Mauldin stopped drawing them in the 1990s!

 

[Guttersnipe]

I really like his wartime recollections work, Up Front. In that particular piece he uses his characteristic dark sense of humor and cutting wit to paint a sometimes absurd picture of an often FUBR army.

 

[Nathan Dodge]

PM sent.

I first learned of Mauldin in an outstanding Military History Quarterly profile (which I still have) from twenty years ago. I have his autobiography, The Brass Ring, as well as Up Front, Back Home, and I've Decided I Want My Seat Back. I'm actually most interested in his post-WWII work and when funds permit, I will get those post-war collections.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been more discussion on this fascinating man.