John Held, Jr.
| John Held Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 10, 1889 Salt Lake City |
| Died | March 2, 1958 Belmar, New Jersey |
John Held Jr. (January 10, 1889 – March 2, 1958) was an American cartoonist, printmaker, illustrator, and author. One of the best-known magazine illustrators of the 1920s, Held created cheerful art showing his characters dancing, motoring and engaging in fun-filled activities. The drawings depicted the flapper era in a way that both satirized and influenced the styles and mores of the time, and his images have continued to define the jazz age for subsequent generations. He also produced linocuts that depicted a Victorian era that was dark with violence and abuse.
Born in Salt Lake City, he was a son of Annie (Evans) and John Held. His father was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and was adopted by Mormon educator John R. Park, who brought him to Salt Lake City. John Held Senior contributed illustrations to the 1888 The Story of the Book of Mormon. John Held Jr.'s maternal grandfather, James Evans, was an English convert to Mormonism.
Held showed a talent for the arts at a young age. He learned woodcutting and engraving from his father, and sold a drawing to local newspaper at only nine years old. He sold his first cartoon to Life magazine at the age of fifteen, and in 1905 he began working as a sports illustrator and cartoonist at the Salt Lake City Tribune. During his years at the Tribune, he obtained his only formal art instruction with the sculptor Mahonri M. Young, a grandson of Brigham Young. In 1910 Held married Myrtle Jennings, the Tribune's society editor. In 1912 he relocated to New York, and found a job as a graphic designer for an advertising company.
In 1915 Vanity Fair began publishing his drawings, which he signed "Myrtle Held". During World War I he worked for US Naval Intelligence in Central America as an artist and cartographer.
He illustrated many covers for Life during the 1920s, and contributed illustrations for other magazines including Judge and The Smart Set. His work, which quickly became popular, defined the "funny, stylish image of the flapper with her cigarette holder, shingle bob and turned-down hose and of ther slick-haired boyfriend in puffy pants and raccoon coat." He wrote and drew two newspaper comic strips, Margie and Rah Rah Rosalie. In addition to his archetypical flapper illustrations, Held also made linocuts and drew cartoons in a 19th-century woodcut style. From 1925 to 1932, his woodcut-style cartoons and faux maps were published frequently in The New Yorker, founded by his high school classmate Harold Ross. Held created the iconic "Wise Men Fish Here" sign which hung above the door of the Gotham Book Mart for the life of the store.
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