1938 A. D. Cartoons by Shoemaker Signed & Numbered

Limited Edition (1410/1500) vintage book with editorial cartoons by Vaughn Shoemaker in 1938 while working for the Chicago Daily News. Shoemaker started his career at the Chicago Daily News and spent 22 years there, and was the chief cartoonist between 1925 and 1952. His 1938 Pulitzer cartoon for the paper was The Road Back, featuring a World War I soldier marching back to war. The 1947 winning cartoon for the paper was Still Racing His Shadow, featuring "new wage demands" of workers trying to outrun his shadow "cost of living". He went on to work for the New York Herald Tribune between 1956 and 1961, and both the Chicago American, and Chicago Today from 1961 to 1971. By his January, 1972 retirement he had drawn over 14,000 cartoons. Shoemaker was a strong opponent of fascism. In one cartoon, entitled, The greatest educator of the German nation, he asks if Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels are good examples of the Aryan race. He was praised by Zbynek Zeman for his cartoon, Take me to Czechoslovakia (8th September 1938), which shows that Hitler was driven by the figure of death. Chris Lamb, the author of Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons (2004) argues that Shoemaker "lived in the Midwest and reflected the republican, pro-business policies and attitudes of their publishers and editors" Gustavus C. Widney pointed out that the cartoonist was "not a reactionary, but content with the world as he finds it, and he has found it a pretty good sort of place." Shoemaker often included a small man in his cartoons that he called "John Q. Public". Inscribed to a previous owner by Shoemaker on the first blank page. Out Of Print. Condition: Fine Minus. Lightly soiled covers. Tipped corners with a small dent on the side edge and yellowing pages.