Margy 1925 collection by John Held, Jr.
(10 January 1889 - 2 March 1958, USA)
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John James Held, Jr. was an American cartoonist, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, and author.
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After selling his first cartoon in 1904 to Life magazine at age 14 he dropped out of school and was working for as a sports cartoonist for the Salt Lake City Tribune. In 1910, he was employed by Collier's agency living in NYC. During the 1920s, he became renowned for the flat-chested, angular "flapper" girls who appeared on all the big magazine covers, book covers, music sheets and advertising jobs by Held, Jr.
From these cartoons 'Merely Margy' developed, and appeared as a comics feature in 1925, accompanied by 'Joe Prep'. In 1935, 'Merely Margy' folded and was replaced by 'Rah! Rah! Rosalie', but this 1920s-based comic did not catch on during the changing times of the Great Depression years.
Upon his death at the age of 69, The New York Times observed that John Held, Jr. (American, 1889-1958) had been in his heyday, “one of the country’s best known cartoonists.” -New York Times obit.
Held did many, many magazine and book covers in his time. You can find a nice selection in the Internet Archive link above.
We've included links to galleries and bios as well. Held, Jr's life was right out of a Fitzgerald book. |
