No Kiddin! by the renowned British cartoonist and artist Bruce Bairnsfather (1887–1959). G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1945 – First edition. A unique collection of satirical illustrations and cartoons from the Second World War, presenting the Allied humorous perspective on the war and the Nazi regime.
Bruce Bairnsfather was a British soldier and cartoonist who first achieved fame during the First World War through the creation of the legendary character “Old Bill” – an aging British soldier with a thick moustache and a cynical, clear-eyed outlook on life in the trenches. At the beginning of the book appears a letter by General Curtis E. LeMay, describing the impact that the character of Old Bill had on the morale of his troops. During the Second World War, Bairnsfather served as an official cartoonist for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in Europe, and this book grew out of his encounters with young American servicemen and their experiences during the war in Europe. Every page is filled with lighthearted yet incisive illustrations and cartoons intended to boost the morale of both the fighting forces and the American home front, while ridiculing the Nazi dictatorship and portraying the approaching Allied victory. Among the illustrations are caricatures depicting Adolf Hitler and SS leaders as absurd figures on the verge of defeat; humorous scenes portraying the experiences of Allied soldiers on the battlefield; cartoons about the “self-sacrifice” of war correspondents determined to reach every front-line engagement and document it, as well as the relationship between military commanders and the journalists covering the war; humorous depictions of Allied soldiers longing for the wives they had left at home; and cartoons mocking German soldiers as they surrender on the battlefield, along with many others.
At the beginning of the book is a photograph of the artist himself, Bruce Bairnsfather, in uniform beside an American bomber. Painted on the aircraft’s nose is his famous “Old Bill” character alongside the aircraft’s name. Above the photograph appears the artist’s printed signature. In his introduction, Bairnsfather writes: “As I write these lines, I am about to return to France. I say ‘return, ‘ because when this tremendous upheaval began, I found myself wandering along the British Front, the Maginot Line, and through the days before Dunkirk. Since that distant and ominous time, I have had the privilege of serving as an official war artist with the United States Forces in Europe from the moment of their first arrival here. In that capacity, I have now completed no fewer than two hundred sketches for the historic American military newspaper, Stars and Stripes. Many and varied have been my experiences as a wandering war cartoonist, but perhaps nothing has meant more to me than the many long months I spent with the Eighth Air Force, in the land of the Flying Fortress. Through winter and summer, I shared, as far as I was able, the kind of life these heroic crusaders of the air were compelled to lead while carrying out their arduous and dangerous work on this side of the Atlantic. I felt that this was the only way I could draw pictures that might, in some measure, lighten the grim and precarious existence of those around me.”
[112] pages. Original illustrated hardcover with the original dust jacket, complete. Signs of age to the dust jacket. Original San Francisco bookseller’s label on the front protective page; ownership inscription dated 1966 on the front endpaper. Good – very good condition.
