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David Low
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the American astronaut, see G. David Low
Sir David Alexander Cecil Low (7 April 1891–19 September 1963) was a New Zealand-born political cartoonist. Low was a self-taught cartoonist. He worked in his native country before migrating to Sydney, Australia in 1911, and ultimately to London (1919), where he made his career and earned fame for his Colonel Blimp depictions and his merciless satirising of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and their policies. Such stinging depictions led to his work being banned in Italy and Germany.
Low received a knighthood in 1962, and died in London in 1963. Upon his death in 1963, Low was described in the press as "the dominant cartoonist of the western world"[1]
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Low was born in Dunedin, and attended primary school there. His family later moved to Christchurch, where Low attended Christchurch Boys' High School. Low's first cartoon was published in 1902, when he was 11 years old, in the Christchurch Spectator[2].
Low began his career as a professional cartoonist with the Canterbury Times in 1910. In 1911 he moved to Sydney, Australia to join the Bulletin. During his employment at the Bulletin, Low became famous for a 1916 cartoon of William Hughes, then the Prime Minister of Australia, entitled The Imperial Conference. A collection of Low's cartoons of Hughes entitled The Billy Book, which he published in 1918, brought Low to the notice of Henry Cadbury, part-owner of the London Star. In 1919 Cadbury offered Low a job with the Star, which Low promptly accepted.
In England, Low worked initially at the London Star (1919–27), before joining the Evening Standard (1927–50). Later he moved to the Daily Herald (1950–53), and finally the Manchester Guardian (from 1953).
In 1937, Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels told British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax that British political cartoons, particularly those of Low's, were damaging Anglo-German relations. After the war, Low is said to have found his name on the Nazi death list.
A generation of New Zealand school students were taught the origins of the Second World War in textbooks illustrated with Low's cartoons and were told that Hitler had a personal hatred of the cartoonist.
- ^ Lindesay, Vane. Low, Sir David Alexander Cecil (1891 - 1963). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition. Retrieved on 2006-06-03.
- ^ Maclennan, Stewart B. (1966). LOW, Sir David Alexander Cecil. An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Retrieved on 2006-06-03.
