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for F. OPPER
F. OPPER
Aurora Publishers Incorporated
Nashville, TN 1970
E 661 .C25
p. 3
Among the many gifted and resourceful cartoonists in America, Frederick Opper was probably the most individualistic and prolific of all. Born in Madison, Ohio, in 1857, he left school at the age of fourteen and worked in one of the village stores for a time. For a few years he served as an apprentice printer on the local paper. He then came to New York to seek his fortune by setting type in some newspaper office. He found he had not served long enough in the printer's trade to get a job, and he finally secured a job in a large store making price labels. While here, he got up comic sketches and took them to "Wild Oats", a humor publication. The fact that some of these were accepted encouraged him so that he gave up his position and supported himself by making humorous drawings.
He was offered a place on the staff of "Leslie's Weekly." After three years he was hired by Keppler. Opper stayed with "Puck" from 1880 until 1898 and then severed his relations with "Puck" to accept a position with William Randolph Hearst.
Opper's work rarely caricatured individuals; he preferred to employ original figures to typify certain evil classes. His drawings usually created a smile while conveying some important truth. His range of work has been remarkably wide; he has done cartoons, social humor, satire, and character work and has illustrated books by such writers as Mark Twain, Bill Nye, Hobart, the author of "Dinkelspiel," and F. P. Dunne. Opper continued to draw political cartoons for Hearst along with "Happy Hooligan," "Gloomy Gus," "Howson Lott," "Alphonse and Gatson," and "Maude the Mule."
(From curatorial binder)
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