A soldier's sketchbook : from the front lines of World War II

Format:

Book

Title:

A soldier's sketchbook : from the front lines of World War II

Author:

Farris, Joseph, 1924-2015.

ISBN:

9781426208171

Publication Information:

Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, 2011.

Physical Description:

303 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm

Contents:

We are now real soldiers -- The West Point of the south -- Living on borrowed time -- Our Christmas on the line -- Coffee, donuts and Red Cross girls -- Headlines, death and victory -- Hot water out of a faucet -- Hard to believe this is the army.

Summary:

"New Yorker cartoonist and painter Joseph Farris chronicles his experience in World War II through letters and sketches that he wrote at the time. The letters, some of which are reproduced as facsimiles, are illustrated with photographs, artifacts, and other archival documents as well as newly commissioned maps. The voice of the 20-something narrator in the letters is balanced with the voice of the man today, who interweaves his own commentary into the book to explain gaps in the correspondence. All told, the book is a rich and poignant glimpse at the experience of one man's journey through the European theater of war"-- Provided by publisher.

Personal Subject:

Farris, Joseph, 1924-2015-Correspondence.

Farris, Joseph 1924-2015

Corporate Subject:

United States. Army. Infantry Division, 100th.

United States. Army. Infantry Division, 100th

Subject(s):

United States. Army. Infantry Division, 100th.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, American.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- France.

World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- Germany.

Geographic Term:

France

Germany

Genre:

letters (correspondence)

personal correspondence.

works of art.

Personal narratives

Personal correspondence

Art

Personal narratives -- American

Personal narratives.

Art.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	940.5412 Farris	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A Soldier's Sketchbook, an illustrated memoir from a World War II soldier, is drawn from the letters, sketches, snapshots, and mementos of Pvt. Joseph Farris, who left his home of Danbury, Connecticut, and set off to war aboard the U.S.S. General Gordon in October 1944, bound for France as part of Company M, 398th Infantry. Farris wrote more than 800 letters home, and he hewed his artistic talents with sketches and paintings along the way. He also secretly copied officers' notes and, once back home after the war, collected clippings and battlefield accounts, which form a sobering counterpoint to his reassurances to his parents that everything is "swell." This book chronicles a young soldier's experiences from October 1944 through January 1946 in France and Germany. In words and pictures, it tells of Christmas in the trenches, long walks through the rain and mud, landscapes of fear and despair, lost friends and leaders, changing beliefs about human nature, God, and the Jerries (as he calls the Germans). Transcriptions of many of the 800 letters Joseph Farris wrote home sit side by side with the real thing, reproduced in facsimile on the page. Snapshots and color sketches, painted in moments of reprieve during battle and carried home by this earnest young man and fledgling artist, help us see the world he saw.

Author Notes

Joseph Farris is an internationally published illustrator whose cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, many on the cover, since 1971. His numerous books include Phobias and Therapies, A Cog in the Wheel, and They're a Very Successful Family. Farris's work is in the private collections of President Jimmy Carter and Paul Newman, among others, and many of his New Yorker cartoons are in the permanent collection of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

Reviews (1)

Booklist Review

The armed forces commissioned professional artists in WWII (see Tom Lea's The Two Thousand Yard Stare, 2008), but many amateurs in uniform also depicted their experiences (Tracy Sugerman's My War, 2000; Dean Joy's Sixty Days in Combat, 2004). Farris, best known postwar as a cartoonist for the New Yorker, offers this evocative memoir-album, with a scrapbook graphic design. Replete with faux-yellowed pages, it chronicles his tour of duty using his contemporary illustrations, his letters to his Connecticut family, and present-day reflections on the attitudes and fears of his innocent 19-year-old self. The whole encapsulates situations common to the millions called into service, from Farris' draft notice to basic training to honorable discharge. Initially assigned to a seemingly safe program of technical training, Ferris, object of the army's mysterious ways, was sent to the front line as a machine gunner. His concealed the danger in his letters, to avoid upsetting his family, but not now. With meticulous National Geographic maps tracking his regiment's advance through France and Germany, Ferris' is an honestly written, visually captivating volume and a superb addition to the genre of WWII artwork.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist