Today's Post:
'Puck' paved the way for political humor
Lady Liberty confronts monopolies -- in the form of a snake.
Image: Joseph Keppler, 1881, via the Library of Congress.
The magazine was called Puck, and it was named for William Shakespeare’s character from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was Puck who delivered the line, “What fools these mortals be!”
Founded by Joseph Ferdinand Keppler (1838-1894), the magazine prominently featured political cartoons skewering politicians of the time. And when it added color, Puck became a “newsstand eye-catcher, a political force and a magnet for aspiring cartoonists and humorous writers,” explains the Smithsonian Institution’s website.
Keppler, born in Vienna, showed his ability as an artist early on, and he trained in the German style of cartoon illustration. In the wake of revolution in the Austrian Empire in 1848, his father was forced to leave the country and found a home in Missouri.
Keppler, his mother and siblings stayed behind initially. But in 1867, he traveled to the U.S. By 1875, Keppler was living in New York and working as an artist for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, according to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
But Keppler had an entrepreneurial streak and launched Puck magazine in 1876 in German. One year later, in March 1877, an English-language version appeared. That year, Rutherford B. Hayes took office as the 19th president. The magazine was 16 pages and sold for 10 cents, recounts the website for the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University.
Keppler died in 1894, but the English version continued in publication until 1918. For better or for worse, the magazine’s artists took aim at Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency (1901-1909).
Keppler's son, Udo (Joseph Keppler Jr.), was also an artist whose work appeared in the magazine. See more Puck illustrations here.
To know more:
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Joseph Ferdinand Keppler.
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Joseph Keppler.
- Library of Congress: Puck Cartoons -- Launched at Last!
- Smithsonian Libraries: Joseph Ferdinand Keppler.
- Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University: Puck Magazine.
Related:
Counting heads: An election lexicon
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