Up Front Hardcover by Bill Maudlin First Edition First Printing 1945 Price Adjustment

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telerites · October 15, 2021

This book is not rare by any means if you search it, there are many results. It is a little confusing too me as I see some with dustjackets and others without. From what I could find there were multiple printings (at least seven). From what I see on other copies in my search results, as this copy does not denote any printing, it is the first printing. Ask prices are kind of all over the place and sold prices are as well.

Asking Price and Condition:

So based on sales prices and conditions, I will try ~~$20~~ $12 shipped within the US. If you are a veteran and are interested and can send me a pic of your military ID card (name should match what is on your Paypal account), you will receive a 10% discount.

This is nice tight copy. Pages are excellent. There is a inscription on the first page (blank page) and is dated '45 (1945) which is pretty cool, I think. It was my dad's copy although he is not the original owner.

Deets:

Paypal Goods and Services

No returns unless I have missed something egregious.

First I'll take here in the thread. PMs are welcome but my hours are a bit wacky. I am usually offline around 4:00 pm Central Time until 1 am and I do not get notifications to my mail (yahoo blocks it for some reason).

So below is a lot of interesting information for a book that I am asking a Jackson for. You should read the last section about General Patton. I learned a lot about Maudlin researching this book.

Blurb about the book I found from an auction site:

"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 pledge to throw his in jail, to deliver his wildly popular cartoon, Up Front, to the pages of Stars and Stripes. Up Front featured the wisecracking 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."

And some facts about Maudlin:

At twenty-three, Mauldin was the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize which he was awarded for his "Up Front with Mauldin" series of Willie and Joe cartoons. Up Front is the first compilation of his work published for civilians. (Although he no longer holds that distinction).

As a cartoonist for "Stars and Stripes" Bill Mauldin (1921-2003) created his memorable characters Willie and Joe, affording a ground's eye view of World War Two that earned him his first Pulitzer Prize (as well as a Purple Heart). A second came during his postwar career as an editorial cartoonist. He also was awarded the Legion of Merit.

General George Patton was not at all pleased with Maudlin's "true" depiction of army life. He met with Patton which is recounted below -

Patton. In 1944, while technically AWOL in Paris, Mauldin was set up to meet the famous general who did not appreciate the scruffiness of Willie and Joe. In March 1945, he drove up to Luxembourg, to Patton's quarters. Mauldin recounts the meeting in The Brass Ring, in which Patton harangued him:

"Now then, sergeant, about those pictures you draw of those god-awful things you call soldiers. Where did you ever see soldiers like that? You know well you're not drawing an accurate representation of the American soldier. You make them look like bums. No respect for the army, their officers, or themselves. You know as well as I do that you can't have an army without respect for officers. What are you trying to do, incite a mutiny? You listen to me sergeant, the Russians tried running an army without rank once".... "Sergeant," he said, "I don't know what you think you're trying to do, but the krauts ought to pin a medal on you for helping them mess up discipline for us."

Edited October 16, 2021 by telerites