After graduating from Yale in 1928, he studied painting in Rome and Paris,[6] then returned to the U.S. and began teaching art and philosophy at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn.[7] He found breaking into the ranks of serious artists difficult, and he soon turned to caricature,[8] sometime after suffering from a perforated ulcer while at his fifth year of teaching at The Hotchkiss School.[7]
Osborn was in Austria in 1938, working as a tutor, when he was taken to a Hitler rally.[citation needed] His reaction to this event prefigured his famous disgust with mindless obedience and obeisance: "I was sickened and convinced that before us was a demon," he wrote[citation needed]. War seemed to him acceptable, "if that was the only way to rid the world of his evil."[citation needed]. He attempted to join the Spanish Republicans to fight Franco, and later applied to the Royal Canadian Air Force, being turned down on both occasions because of his chronic duodenal ulcer.[9]
World War II
The Dilbert years
Dilbert: Dont Kill Your Friends, 1943
Osborn enlisted when World War II began, hoping to become a U.S. Navy pilot.[citation needed] However, the Navy apparently decided that he would be better employed with his hand wrapped around a pen rather than around a joystick: he was soon learning, then applying the art of "speed drawing", under the command of the photographer Edward Steichen in a special information unit in which pilot training manuals were produced. Osborn began drawing cartoons of a pilot who was hapless, arrogant, ignorant and perpetually blundering in ways that put himself and his crew at unnecessary risk. The name of this character was Dilbert Groundloop also known as "Dilbert the Pilot" and "Dilbert" was soon to become a slang term used to refer to "sailor who is a foul-up or a screwball."[10]Scott Adams credits Osborn as an indirect source of inspiration for the main character in his own Dilbert cartoons. It is not certain how many drawings Osborn produced for Navy manuals; estimates range from 2,000[citation needed] to 40,000.[11] Osborn illustrated an estimated 2,000 educational posters for Navy pilots between 1942 and the end of the war,[12] some of which appeared in the New York Times and Life magazine. For a while, "dilbert" became a synonym for "blunder" for Navy pilots.[13] In 1943, Dilbert was played by actor Huntz Hall in a US Navy training film Don't Kill your Friends.
Grampaw Pettibone
During the Second World War Osborn also drew cartoons of an experienced but somewhat curmudgeonly old Navy pilot, Grampaw Pettibone. Known as the "Sage of Safety", this long-bearded ancient was created in 1943 to educate Navy pilots in safety following a series of avoidable flying mishaps. Osborn illustrated the feature in Naval Aviation News for over 51 years, from 1943 until 1994, when artist Ted Wilbur took over.[14]
Postwar career
After Osborn's stint in the Navy ended in 1946, he wrote a book called War is No Damn Good!, including a nightmarish skull-like depiction of an atomic bomb's mushroom cloud drawn only two weeks after Hiroshima, which prompted critic Steve Heller to call it "the first antiwar book of the nuclear age."[15] The title alluded to cartoonist William Steig's caption, "People are no damn good."[16] Osborn later produced political cartoons, ridiculing Senator Joseph McCarthy,[11] and a number of presidents, from Lyndon Baines Johnson through Ronald Reagan.[11] His cartoons for magazines were frequently published in The New Republic, and also appeared in Fortune, Harper's, Life, Look, Esquire, and House & Garden. He was a political activist for a number of causes, including nuclear disarmament.[17]
Critical reception
According to Osborn's New York Times obituary, over his 50-year career, Osborn's
sardonic and often savage drawings in books and magazines have arrested readers with their images of bloated power, violence and death. At the same time, he could be wittily ironic about society's pretensions, spoofing subjects like psychiatry, suburbanites and social climbing.[11]
Osborn characterized himself as "a drawer" whose figures "seemed to come right out of my subconscious."[11]Garry Trudeau called him "one of the very few masters of illustrative cartooning."[11]Robert Motherwell wrote that his drawings were "so alive that they seemed to writhe on the page with an uninhibited energy .... Osborn's art is a call to responsible action.";[18] Motherwell was among those who compared Osborn's graphic work to that of Daumier, Goya, Saul Steinberg, as well as to the sculpture of Alexander Calder,[18] who was a friend of Osborn's.[19]
Reviewing that show in The New York Times, Times art critic John Russell wrote of Osborn's exhibited Chaplin drawings that
Few people have a nimbler, wittier or more versatile way with pen and pencil than Robert Osborn.[11]
Later life
From 1947 until his death, Osborn lived in Salisbury, Conn. with his wife, Elodie (maiden name Courter), an artist and curator with the Museum of Modern Art.[20] He died of bone cancer, and was survived by two sons, Nic, a naturalist and photographer, and Eliot, a musician and teacher, both of Taconic, Connecticut.[citation needed]
Books written
How to Shoot Ducks (1939)
How to Shoot Quail (1939)
How to Catch Trout (1939)
How to Ski (1942)
Aye, Aye, Sir! (1943)
Dilbert: Just an Accident Looking for a Place to Happen! (1943)
War is No Damn Good! (1946)
How to Work for Peace (1948), with Fred Smith
How to Play Golf (1949)
Low & Inside (1953)
How to Shoot Pheasant (1955)
Osborn on Leisure (1957)
The Vulgarians (1960)
Dying to Smoke (1964) with Fred W. Benton, MD
Mankind May Never Make It! (1968)
An Osborn Festival of Phobias (1971), with Eve Wengler
Osborn on Osborn (1982) (autobiography)
Osborn on Conflict: 40 Brush Drawings (1984) Introduction by Robert Motherwell
The Best of Gramps (1996) (posthumous), ed. by Association of Naval Aviation
Books illustrated
If You Want to Build a House, Elizabeth Baur Kassler (Elizabeth B. Mock), Museum of Modern Art, 1946
Safe for Solo: What Every Young Aviator Should Know, Frederick M. Reeder, Rear Adm USN (Ret.), 1947
Snobs: a guidebook to your friends, your enemies, your colleagues and yourself, Russell Lynes, 1950
Strategy in Poker, Business and War, John McDonald, 1950. (McDonald was the ghostwriter for Alfred P. Sloan's My Years with General Motors. McDonald probably came to Sloan's attention because of this strategy book; see Alfred P. Sloan: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management, John Cunningham Wood, Michael C. Wood, p. 91)
Is Anybody Listening? How and why U. S. Business Fumbles when it Talks with Human Beings, William H. Whyte, 1952
The Wonderful World of Books, Alfred Stefferud, 1953
^War Slang: War Slang: American Fighting Words and Phrases Since the Civil War, Paul Dickson, 2nd ed., p. 148
^ abcdefg* Gussow, Mel, "Robert Osborn Is Dead at 90; Caricaturist and Satirist", The New York Times, December 22, 1994, p. D00019 (national edition).
^Malone, Edward (2019). ""Don't Be a Dilbert": Transmedia Storytelling as Technical Communication during and after World War II" (PDF). Technical Communication. 66: 209–229.
^Revel with a Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America, Steven E. Kerchner, p. 426
^ abIntroduction to Osborn on Conflict,, Robert Motherwell, 1985
^Calder in Connecticut, Eric Zafran, et al., p. 99
^"Elodie Osborn, 82, First Director Of the Modern's Traveling Shows" (obituary), New York Times, February 4, 1994
Further reading
Ask a Flight Instructor website collection of 600 Osborn wartime drawings
"Robert Osborn (1904-1995), a blog entry with many Osborn covers, cartoons and illustrations
January 14, 2023
robert, osborn, satirist, robert, chesley, osborn, 1904, 1994, american, satiric, cartoonist, illustrator, author, robert, osbornbornrobert, chesley, osborn, 1904, october, 1904oshkosh, wisconsin, usdieddecember, 1994, 1994, aged, salisbury, connecticut, usedu. Robert Chesley Osborn 1904 1994 was an American satiric cartoonist illustrator and author Robert C OsbornBornRobert Chesley Osborn 1904 10 26 October 26 1904Oshkosh Wisconsin USDiedDecember 20 1994 1994 12 20 aged 90 Salisbury Connecticut USEducationYale UniversityOccupationCartoonistEmployer s The New Republic Fortune Harper s Life Look Esquire The New York Times House amp Garden U S Navy Naval Aviation NewsKnown forOsborn on Conflict 40 Brush Drawings 1984 An Osborn Festival of Phobias 1971 Mankind May Never Make It 1968 How to Work for Peace 1948 War is No Damn Good 1946 Dilbert Just an Accident Looking for a Place to Happen 1943 How to Shoot Ducks 1939 SpouseElodie Osborn Contents 1 Pre World War II career 2 World War II 2 1 The Dilbert years 2 2 Grampaw Pettibone 3 Postwar career 4 Critical reception 5 Later life 6 Books written 7 Books illustrated 8 Exhibitions 9 Archives and collections 10 Notes 11 Further readingPre World War II career EditOsborn was born October 26 1904 in Oshkosh Wisconsin 1 He witnessed a fatal aviation crash in June 1916 of Charles Franklin Niles 2 He entered the University of Wisconsin in 1923 3 then transferred to Yale in 1923 4 At Yale together with Dwight Macdonald Wilder Hobson Geoffrey T Hellman and Jack Jessup Osborn helped publish campus humor magazine The Yale Record and was accepted into Yale s Elizabethan Club 5 After graduating from Yale in 1928 he studied painting in Rome and Paris 6 then returned to the U S and began teaching art and philosophy at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville Conn 7 He found breaking into the ranks of serious artists difficult and he soon turned to caricature 8 sometime after suffering from a perforated ulcer while at his fifth year of teaching at The Hotchkiss School 7 Osborn was in Austria in 1938 working as a tutor when he was taken to a Hitler rally citation needed His reaction to this event prefigured his famous disgust with mindless obedience and obeisance I was sickened and convinced that before us was a demon he wrote citation needed War seemed to him acceptable if that was the only way to rid the world of his evil citation needed He attempted to join the Spanish Republicans to fight Franco and later applied to the Royal Canadian Air Force being turned down on both occasions because of his chronic duodenal ulcer 9 World War II EditThe Dilbert years Edit source source source source source source Dilbert Dont Kill Your Friends 1943 Osborn enlisted when World War II began hoping to become a U S Navy pilot citation needed However the Navy apparently decided that he would be better employed with his hand wrapped around a pen rather than around a joystick he was soon learning then applying the art of speed drawing under the command of the photographer Edward Steichen in a special information unit in which pilot training manuals were produced Osborn began drawing cartoons of a pilot who was hapless arrogant ignorant and perpetually blundering in ways that put himself and his crew at unnecessary risk The name of this character was Dilbert Groundloop also known as Dilbert the Pilot and Dilbert was soon to become a slang term used to refer to sailor who is a foul up or a screwball 10 Scott Adams credits Osborn as an indirect source of inspiration for the main character in his own Dilbert cartoons It is not certain how many drawings Osborn produced for Navy manuals estimates range from 2 000 citation needed to 40 000 11 Osborn illustrated an estimated 2 000 educational posters for Navy pilots between 1942 and the end of the war 12 some of which appeared in the New York Times and Life magazine For a while dilbert became a synonym for blunder for Navy pilots 13 In 1943 Dilbert was played by actor Huntz Hall in a US Navy training film Don t Kill your Friends Grampaw Pettibone Edit During the Second World War Osborn also drew cartoons of an experienced but somewhat curmudgeonly old Navy pilot Grampaw Pettibone Known as the Sage of Safety this long bearded ancient was created in 1943 to educate Navy pilots in safety following a series of avoidable flying mishaps Osborn illustrated the feature in Naval Aviation News for over 51 years from 1943 until 1994 when artist Ted Wilbur took over 14 Postwar career EditAfter Osborn s stint in the Navy ended in 1946 he wrote a book called War is No Damn Good including a nightmarish skull like depiction of an atomic bomb s mushroom cloud drawn only two weeks after Hiroshima which prompted critic Steve Heller to call it the first antiwar book of the nuclear age 15 The title alluded to cartoonist William Steig s caption People are no damn good 16 Osborn later produced political cartoons ridiculing Senator Joseph McCarthy 11 and a number of presidents from Lyndon Baines Johnson through Ronald Reagan 11 His cartoons for magazines were frequently published in The New Republic and also appeared in Fortune Harper s Life Look Esquire and House amp Garden He was a political activist for a number of causes including nuclear disarmament 17 Critical reception EditAccording to Osborn s New York Times obituary over his 50 year career Osborn s sardonic and often savage drawings in books and magazines have arrested readers with their images of bloated power violence and death At the same time he could be wittily ironic about society s pretensions spoofing subjects like psychiatry suburbanites and social climbing 11 dd Osborn characterized himself as a drawer whose figures seemed to come right out of my subconscious 11 Garry Trudeau called him one of the very few masters of illustrative cartooning 11 Robert Motherwell wrote that his drawings were so alive that they seemed to writhe on the page with an uninhibited energy Osborn s art is a call to responsible action 18 Motherwell was among those who compared Osborn s graphic work to that of Daumier Goya Saul Steinberg as well as to the sculpture of Alexander Calder 18 who was a friend of Osborn s 19 Reviewing that show in The New York Times Times art critic John Russell wrote of Osborn s exhibited Chaplin drawings that Few people have a nimbler wittier or more versatile way with pen and pencil than Robert Osborn 11 dd Later life EditFrom 1947 until his death Osborn lived in Salisbury Conn with his wife Elodie maiden name Courter an artist and curator with the Museum of Modern Art 20 He died of bone cancer and was survived by two sons Nic a naturalist and photographer and Eliot a musician and teacher both of Taconic Connecticut citation needed Books written EditHow to Shoot Ducks 1939 How to Shoot Quail 1939 How to Catch Trout 1939 How to Ski 1942 Aye Aye Sir 1943 Dilbert Just an Accident Looking for a Place to Happen 1943 War is No Damn Good 1946 How to Work for Peace 1948 with Fred Smith How to Play Golf 1949 Low amp Inside 1953 How to Shoot Pheasant 1955 Osborn on Leisure 1957 The Vulgarians 1960 Dying to Smoke 1964 with Fred W Benton MD Mankind May Never Make It 1968 An Osborn Festival of Phobias 1971 with Eve Wengler Osborn on Osborn 1982 autobiography Osborn on Conflict 40 Brush Drawings 1984 Introduction by Robert Motherwell The Best of Gramps 1996 posthumous ed by Association of Naval AviationBooks illustrated EditIf You Want to Build a House Elizabeth Baur Kassler Elizabeth B Mock Museum of Modern Art 1946 Safe for Solo What Every Young Aviator Should Know Frederick M Reeder Rear Adm USN Ret 1947 Acres and Pains S J Perelman 1947 Snobs a guidebook to your friends your enemies your colleagues and yourself Russell Lynes 1950 Strategy in Poker Business and War John McDonald 1950 McDonald was the ghostwriter for Alfred P Sloan s My Years with General Motors McDonald probably came to Sloan s attention because of this strategy book see Alfred P Sloan Critical Evaluations in Business and Management John Cunningham Wood Michael C Wood p 91 Is Anybody Listening How and why U S Business Fumbles when it Talks with Human Beings William H Whyte 1952 The Wonderful World of Books Alfred Stefferud 1953 Trial by Television and Other Encounters Michael Whitney Straight 1954 The Spoor of Spooks and Other Nonsense Bergen Evans 1954 Architecturally Speaking Eugene Raskin 1954 The Exurbanites A C Spectorsky 1955 Women amp Children First Paul Steiner 1955 Parkinson s Law and Other Studies in Administration C Northcote Parkinson 1957 The Insolent Chariots John Keats 1958 The Decline of the American Male editors of Look 1958 Subverse Rhymes for Our Times Marya Mannes AKA Sec 1959 Don t Get Perconel with a Chicken H Allen Smith 1959 The Law and Profits C Northcote Parkinson 1960 I Met a Man John Ciardi 1961 A Modern Demonology Frank Getlein 1961 Basics An I Can Read Book for Grownups Eve Merriam 1962 The Everlasting Cocktail Party A Layman s Guide to Culture Climbing Peter Blake 1964 The Song of Paul Bunyan amp Tony Beaver Ennis Rees 1964 Great Science Riddles Rose Wyler 1965 Gardens Make Me Laugh James Rose 1965 Computers on Campus A Report to the President on their Use and Management John Caffrey American Council on Education 1967 Mrs Parkinson s Law And Other Studies in Domestic Science C Northcote Parkinson 1968 Not So Rich as You Think George R Stewart 1968 International Conflict for Beginners Roger Fisher 1969 foreword by Edward M Kennedy Missile Madness Herbert Scoville 1970 The Nixon Watch John Osborne 1970Exhibitions EditCharles Chaplin 1987Archives and collections EditRobert Osborn Papers Yale Collection of American Literature Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library The Library of Congress The Pritzker Military Museum amp Library The Smithsonian InstitutionNotes Edit Osborn on Osborn p 11 The Aerodrome forum Osborn on Osborn p 39 Osborn on Osborn p 41 Osborn on Osborn p 44 Osborn on Osborn p 50 a b Kolowrat Ernest 1992 Hotchkiss A Chronicle of an American School New Amsterdam pp 208 210 ISBN 1 56131 058 1 Osborn on Osborn Revel with a Cause p 51 War Slang War Slang American Fighting Words and Phrases Since the Civil War Paul Dickson 2nd ed p 148 a b c d e f g Gussow Mel Robert Osborn Is Dead at 90 Caricaturist and Satirist The New York Times December 22 1994 p D00019 national edition Malone Edward 2019 Don t Be a Dilbert Transmedia Storytelling as Technical Communication during and after World War II PDF Technical Communication 66 209 229 Current Biography H W Wilson Co 1986 p 336 Grampaw Pettibone Naval Aviation News Retrieved July 25 2018 Revel with a Cause p 52 A Dash of Bitters Time magazine April 6 1953 Revel with a Cause Liberal Satire in Postwar America Steven E Kerchner p 426 a b Introduction to Osborn on Conflict Robert Motherwell 1985 Calder in Connecticut Eric Zafran et al p 99 Elodie Osborn 82 First Director Of the Modern s Traveling Shows obituary New York Times February 4 1994Further reading EditAsk a Flight Instructor website collection of 600 Osborn wartime drawings Robert Osborn 1904 1995 a blog entry with many Osborn covers cartoons and illustrations Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Robert Osborn satirist amp oldid 1112963559, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
