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Gene Basset’s Vietnam Sketchbook
A Cartoonist’s Wartime Perspective
Thom Rooke
Cloth $49.95s
| 978-0-8156-3421-8
| 2015
Paper $24.95
| 978-0-8156-1057-1
| 2015
ebook 978-0-8156-5337-0
"This is a truly worthy addition to the well-stocked shelves of
books on the Vietnam War. Rooke writes with tremendous verve
and wit and is a likeable and knowledgeable guide through a remarkable
collection of sketches. The visual history of the Vietnam
War is dominated by photography and film, so Gene Basset’s
drawings provide a fresh and fascinating angle of vision. This
book is more than a history, it is a meditation on grief in war."—Todd DePastino, author of Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front
"This work is of real importance, not only
for making Basset’s fine drawings more
widely known but also for the unique perspective
his visual commentary sheds on
the Vietnam era. The book should appeal to
those interested in history and psychology
and especially to those interested in art."—Donald Myers, director, Hillstrom Museum of Art
"Calling Gene Basset a cartoonist is like
calling Da Vinci a pretty good sketch artist.
He draws with his head, his heart,
and hand, and holds a wonderful mirror.
Rooke’s adaptation of the stages of grief is
totally apt. Vietnam was the death of American
innocence, and this book is a wonderful,
insightful way to begin healing."—Steven Northup, former United Press International
staff photographer, Saigon, 1965–66
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Gene Basset is an American cartoonist primarily known for his editorial cartoons. He was
the chief editorial cartoonist with Scripps Howard newspapers for twenty years. In 1982,
Basset joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked until his retirement
in 1992. His work has been exhibited at the Pratt Institute, and in 2005, drawings done by
Basset during a trip to Vietnam were exhibited at Gustavus Adolphus College.
Thom Rooke is professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He holds
an endowed chair in vascular medicine and is former head of the Section of Vascular Medicine
and director of the Gonda Vascular Center.
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Book Description »[Close »]
In 1965, Gene Basset, a well-known political cartoonist, was sent to Vietnam
by his newspaper publishing syndicate. His assignment: to sketch scenes of the
increasingly controversial war in order to help the newspaper-reading public
better understand the events occurring in Southeast Asia.
In much the same way that M.A.S.H. gave viewers an irreverent, wry view of
war and its devastating effects on citizens as well as soldiers, Basset’s sketches
portray the everyday, often mundane, aspects of wartime with an intimate touch
that eases access to the dark subject matter. In this affectionately curated collection,
author, doctor, and longtime friend of the artist, Thom Rooke, deftly
leads us through more than eighty of Basset’s cartoons, organizing his insights
according to the well-known stages of grief, from denial to acceptance, and
demonstrating how Basset’s images convey moments of trauma, coping, and
healing. From scenes of American GIs haggling with Vietnamese street vendors
to a medic dressing the wounds of a wide-eyed soldier, Basset’s endearing
sketches and Rooke’s friendly prose humanize life during wartime. The seriocomic
vignettes and analyses are delivered with wit, compassion, and subtle
charm sure to please academic, artistic, and casual readers alike.
7 x 10, 176 pages, 87 black-and-white illustrations, notes, bibliography
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