EDMUND VALTMAN:
THE CARTOONIST WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD
Special Presentation by the Prints and Photographs Division
and
the Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon
 Edmund
S. Valtman (1914- ) may be the only American cartoonist of the
Cold War era who experienced Soviet rule firsthand. The Pulitzer
Prize winning cartoonist was working as a draftsman in his native
Estonia when the Soviets overran the Baltic states in 1940. Russia
went to war with Germany in 1941 and subsequently mobilized Estonian
men under fifty, including Valtman's two brothers, to the Soviet
Union. Germany occupied Estonia for three years until the Soviets
re-occupied the beleaguered nation. These tumultuous events and
their repercussions marked Valtman profoundly -- ultimately bringing
him to American shores and sharply shaping his anti-Communist
stance on Cold War issues in his cartoons. This online collection
draws primarily upon the 340 drawings that he gave to the Library
in 1999-2001.
Born May 31, 1914, in Tallinn, Estonia, Valtman grew up in a
family deeply interested in art and politics. As a teenager he
read about foreign affairs in newspapers, admired cartoons in
the German satirical magazine Simplicissimus and English
Punch, and assisted his older brother in his efforts
to become a professional cartoonist. At the age of fifteen he
sold his first drawings, cartoon illustrations for a children's
magazine (Laste rõõm). He trained first
in private studios, then studied at the Tallinn Art and Applied
Art School (1942-44) while he worked as editorial cartoonist for
the Estonian newspapers Eesti Sõna and Maa
Sõna. On September 21, 1944, the day that Soviet tanks
re-entered Talinn, Valtman fled the country with his wife. After
four years in displaced persons' camps in Allied-controlled Germany,
he found a sponsor in the United States and immigrated in 1949.
 In
1951 Valtman obtained a position as editorial cartoonist with
The Hartford Times and remained there until he retired
in 1975. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for his editorial
cartoons of the previous year, which critique the regimes of socialist
countries. In his lifework Valtman comments on a wide range of
foreign and domestic issues from the Kennedy Presidency to the
Clinton administration. Pointed assessments of Soviet and Chinese
leaders and policies throughout the Cold War era form the dominant
thread through his work. His caricatures of Nikita Khrushchev
(1894-1971) and Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982) are often devastating.
Even Mikhail Gorbachev (1931- ) is treated with skepticism. Though
less biting toward American presidents, Valtman spares none of
them hard scrutiny. The injustice of the Soviet Union toward small
nations such as Estonia, emerges as an important sub-theme. His
linear style, minimal shading, and shallow space gradually give
way to use of more traditional perspective in later work. He avoids
using text balloons, preferring to make a key figure's statement
the caption, and asserts this as his contribution to editorial
cartooning. Valtman has channeled his passion and artistic energy
into creating drawings that memorably expose injustices, poor
decisions, and tyrannies committed by political leaders at national
and global levels. He will be best remembered for his drawings
that reflect strong personal commitment and forcefully indict
20th century leaders of totalitarian states.
-- Martha H. Kennedy, Presentation Curator
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