Editorial cartooning

Check out Dr. Seuss’ WWII editorial cartoons

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Alan Gardner July 17, 2012 1 minute 2 comments

Best known for his children’s books, Theodor Seuss Geisel or Dr. Seuss, was an editorial cartoonist for two years (1941-1943) for the short-lived “PM” newspaper in New York City. The Jewish Journal has a write-up about the round-up of Jews in France 70 years ago this month and Seuss’ editorial cartooning reaction.

In one important respect, Seuss’s cartoon was prescient: unlike many of his contemporaries, he correctly perceived that France’s Jews were doomed to be killed. At the time of the roundups, the Germans claimed the Jews were being sent for “work in the East,” and the deportees’ true destination was generally unknown abroad.

I vaguely remember that Seuss did editorial cartoons. Doing a quick Google Image search for “dr. seuss editorial cartoons” yield a large number of editorial cartoons credited to Seuss.

The University of California, San Diego has a special collection of originals and clippings which are viewable online. There was also a book published back in 1999 entitled, “Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel” by Richard H. Minear and Art Spiegelman