Illingworth:Political Cartoons from the Daily Mail 1939-69

London: Political Cartoon Society. Very Good. 2009. First Edition. Hard Cover. Dimensions: 29.7 x 21.3 x 2 cm 0954900820 Original publisher's illustrated laminated boards. Issued without Dust Jacket. Numerous illustrations in b/w. 200 pages clean and tight. Previous owner's small ownership label on half title. Leslie Gilbert Illingworth (1902 to 1979) was perhaps one of the last great practitioners of penmanship to take up political cartooning. This book is not only a biography of one of the twentieth centurys most important cartoonists, but also a visual and detailed chronicle of thirty years of history through roughly three hundred cartoons that were originally published in the Daily Mail. Review: "It is the fate of most political cartoonists to be swiftly forgotten. Their work is nothing if not topical, effective on the day, incomprehensible a year later. But a select few endure because of their brilliance with pen and ink. Older readers of the Daily Mail will not need to be reminded of Leslie Illingworth, whose political drawings adorned the paper from the outbreak of the war for the next 30 years. This handsome book brings back those years with 300 of his best drawings, often as powerful as exploding grenades. Timothy Benson of the Political Cartoon Society has edited and placed them in their context. Turning the pages is like going through those years on fast-forward. Benson writes a lively sketch of the artist s memorable character. Leslie Illingworth presided genially over the studio on the top floor of the old Northcliffe House, just off Fleet Street. He was a short, ruggedly built Welshman with a huge protruding jaw and eyebrows that were not so much bushes as uncut hedges. He liked to caricature himself as a sort of Welsh hobgoblin whose loose lower lip protruded with mischief. As MAC recalls in his foreword, he would proclaim: I m the original missing link, Boyo. Got any bananas? The room was always crowded. In pre-computer days, newspaper offices were noisy sociable places full of stories. In the midst of the hubbub sat Leslie, beaming over his drawing board. He would listen and interject banter in a deep Welsh growl while calmly continuing to draw with the greatest finesse. He exuded warmth. He usually called you Boyo. He had drawn from the age of four coming from St Athan, Barry, by way of scholarships to art colleges while already contributing cartoons to papers like the Western Mail. Punch invited him in the Thirties to draw its lead cartoon, which he continued to do when the Daily Mail lured him across Bouverie Street late in 1939. There was raw power in his finely finished political portraits, always accurate but with a wicked twist. The mad glare in Hitler s eyes, the chilling sneer behind Stalin s moustache, the ramrod elegance of De Gaulle s head and nose ( Resign? Moi? ). Churchill he unreservedly admired and depicted in pistol-waving cowboy mode with a Stetson hat in 1940 on the day of blood, sweat and tears . Yet in 1954 he drew and old, exhausted Churchill with the kindly hint that it was time he went. Churchill was upset. It wasn t only Churchill who collected Illingworth s drawings. In the Berlin bunker several of his cartoons ridiculing the Nazi leaders were discovered filed away in a safe by Goebbels. Leslie was amused and pleased. He rarely drew women - he liked them too much. A lifelong optimistic bachelor , he had no lack of female admirers. Most generous to others, Leslie was extremely modest about his own talents. When Kent University made him an honorary Doctor of Letters, he remarked: It s not because I can read and write, but because I cant . But how he could draw." --Peter Lewis of the Daily Mail. .