I Was There With the Yanks on the Western Front

Dublin Core

Title

I Was There With the Yanks on the Western Front

Description

Cyrus Leroy Baldridge (1889 - 1977) was a well-known illustrator of history and adventure books.  His approach to art came from his mentor Frank Holme, who ran the Chicago School of Illustration.  Holme's motto was "Say it with a few bold strokes."

He served on the Mexican border with the National Guard in 1916.  In 1917, he joined the French Army but, when the U.S. entered the war, he transferred to the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF).  He was part of the team that created the Stars and Stripes newspaper, working as the chief artist.  His work appeared in virtually every issue of Stars and Stripes from March 1918 until the end of the war, as well as in Leslie's and Scribner's.  Harold Ross, founder of The New Yorker and a coworker on Stars and Stripes, called him the greatest illustrator of the War.

After the war he assembled his sketches as his first book, I Was There with the Yanks in France.  Disillusioned, he hoped to discourage any future conflict.  "If only I can make the public see what war is - what a dirty, low thing it is, and how brutal it makes men, fine clean men - then they'd fight to the last ditch for the League of Nations."

Creator

Cyrus Leroy Baldridge

Files

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DrawingByCyrusBaldridgein1917-06-28Stars&Stripes-Page8.jpg

Citation

Cyrus Leroy Baldridge, “I Was There With the Yanks on the Western Front,” Willa Cather Foundation Collection, accessed March 28, 2024, https://willacatherfdn.omeka.net/items/show/32.