John Held, Jr. (1889-1958) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a cartoonist whose work epitomised the “jazz age” of the 1920s in the United States. At the age of 16 he was drawing sports and political cartoons for the Salt Lake Tribune, and at 19 he sold his first cartoon to a national magazine. Shortly afterward he moved to New York City, where he worked in the art department of a newspaper.
After service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, Held returned to New York City, where he gained fame and wealth for his drawings in the popular humour magazines Life, Judge, and College Humour. These drawings conveyed a spirit of the era comparable to that in the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald. In particular, Held created such immortal characters as the short-skirted, short-haired “flapper,” who rolled her stockings and used a long cigarette holder, and her escort, who wore a raccoon coat, had patent-leather hair parted in the middle, smoked a pipe, and carried a hip flask. Held’s ability to point up the foibles of the time without sentimentality or bitterness made his cartoons notable. Also during the 1920s, he drew two comic strips: “Merely Margie, an Awfully Sweet Girl” and “Rah, Rah, Rosalie,” both of which ended with the Depression.
During the 1930s Held wrote novels and short stories and did sculpture and woodcuts. His woodcuts, often evoking the “Gay Nineties,” appeared in The New Yorker magazine. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and was stationed in Belmar, N.J., where he made his home after the war. Held’s Angels (1952), illustrated by Held, with text by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr., was a word and picture evocation of the 1920s.
For more information on John Held Jr. see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 1 - 5 also.
This is part 6 of a 6-part series on the works of John Held Jr:
Hot Rhythm
pen and ink and gouache on board 26 x 36.2 cm
"I believe in myself. I’ve just lost faith in the world around me.”
pen and ink on board 24.5 x 34 cm
"It's all right, Santa - you can come in. My parents still believe in you" 
Jazz Scene 
Life Guard 
Life magazine "Clean Number"
watercolour and ink on board 41.3 x 33.6 cm
Life magazine
"Silly Geese"
Life magazine
"The Fellow Who Thought He'd Try His First Dive When No One Was Looking"
Detail 
Detail 
McClures August issue
ink and gouache on board 41.9 x 32.4 cm
Merry Christmas Happy New Year
woodcut
Midnight? 
Northward
The New Haven R.R.
poster
Outside by Frank Flyn
sheet music cover
Paradise 
Poor Parlor 
She Left Home under a Cloud 
Ship Bonetta Salem Departing from Leghorn
colour linocut 34.9 x 50.8 cm
Soldering the Bustle & The Open Placket
wood engravings
South Bound 
Speaking of Vacations "Why is that -" 
Terra Cotta pitcher
29.8 cm high
Thanks For the Buggy Ride!
ink on board 24.8 x 35.6 cm
Detail 
The Clown With A Broken Heart
wood engraving
The Days Beyond Recall Piercing The Ears
wood engraving
The Fatal Card
lino-cut
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
The Fate Of The Cigarette Fiend
wood engraving
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| The Fox Hunt, a Sport for Gentlemen woodcut Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| ( The Girl Said No ) |
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| The Long And The Short Of It |
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| The Miser's Death lino-cut Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| The New York I Know by Karl K. Kitchen gouache on board 25.4 x 37.5 cm |
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| The Tennis Player book illustration pen on board |
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| The Wife-Beaters Grave lino-cut Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC |
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| They are the Aristocrats... ink on illustration board 17.8 x 30.5 cm |
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| "They Want To Fix Your Tie" |
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| To Lee from John Held pen and ink on paper 25.4 x 36.8 cm |
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| Untitled (Boys smoking) pencil, ink and gouache 20.9 x 24.2 cm |
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| Untitled (Two couples) pencil, ink and gouache 24.2 x 35.6 cm |
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| Untitled (Ford T Model Car) pencil, ink and gouache 24.2 x 35.6 cm |
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| Untitled (Couple on a Couch) pencil, ink and gouache 24.2 x 35.6 cm |
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| "Waiting for the Kick-off" |
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| We Can Be Young Only Once Cosmopolitan magazine |
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| With Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas woodcut |
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| 1986 Smithsonian magazine September issue on John Held Jr |
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| 2001 First Day Postage Cover "Life Cover 1926" |
