Fred Ellis

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Fred Ellis (1885-1965) was an American political/editorial cartoonist. His cartoons spoke to many of the issues of the day, both international (World War II, appeasement, the atomic bomb, the Korean War, Nazi war crimes, Communism) and those close to the heart of the American working-class family (unions, low wages, worker safety, Social Security, political corruption).

Ellis was part of the American Radical movement of the 1930s-1950s. He trained with Robert Minor and shared Minor's interest in the plight of the working man. In 1922 Ellis joined the Communist Party and a referral from Minor got him a job as cartoonist for the Daily Worker in New York. He worked in Berlin and Moscow for a time. In 1936 he returned to his job at the Daily Worker and taught at the American Artists School, a progressive independent art school directed by Harry Gottlieb whose board included many prominent Radicals such as William Gropper and as well as influential artists such as Margaret Bourke-White.

[edit] Sources

• "The Radical Impulse," Library of Congress digital exhibit

[edit] External links

• Ellis, Fred. The case of Sacco and Vanzetti in cartoons from the Daily Worker from Michigan State University Libraries
• Fred Ellis papers, Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center