Thomas Nast, Political Cartoonist: Political Cartoonist

This is rather short--the bulk of the book is reproductions of Nast's cartoons. The text is rather good, with commentary about his personal, political, and artistic life. For the author, Nast hit his artistic maturity in 1869. The book covers the major events, Nast's nearly unconditional support of President Grant, his dislike of Catholics and Democrats, his masterly work in attacking the Tweed Ring, his problems with Harper's later and his fading popularity. Readers will likely differ on this point, but the text seems to me to be rather bloodless, technically good but somehow missing the core of the man.Maybe I'm being hypercritical here, because I did my MA thesis (unpublished) on Nast and another graphic artist (the Mexican Posada). The cartoons in the book are a good sample of his work, but missed some of the Santa Claus Harper's covers that established the iconic image.