THE WAGES OF SIN And other Victorian Joys & Sorrows

First printed in 1964. Profusely illustrated in black & white. American cartoonist & print-maker, John Held Jr. takes a satirical look at American life & society during the Victorian era. Held was one of the best known magazine illustrators of the 1920s. As Seen and Engraved By That Old Sentimentalist. "Son of a Famous Cornetist," "Master of Wit and Satire," "Singer of Old Songs," "Philosopher and Poet," "A Scamp If There Ever Was One," and last but not least "America's Foremost Engraver" were some of the phrases that John used to describe himself.

Held added these epithets to his name on a delightful series of linoleum block prints done in the twenties, but harking back to the nineties with transparent sentimentality and plenty of wry humor, he was at the time earning his fame and popularity with a series of flat-chested flappers and bell-bottomed boyfriends who appeared in Life, Judge, Collier's, College Humor and a newspaper comic strip called "Margy." Along with Fitzgerald's heroines, Held's flappers rapidly became personifications of the Jazz Age. Harold Ross, a former schoolmate and editor of the New Yorker, wanted to use Held's work but thought the flappers were already too common. Held showed him these pseudo-1890's cartoons, which he promptly agreed to print, and a memorable series was born. Out Of Print. Condition: Fine. Light edge wear.